SUMMARY

Radiation chemistry of different classes of inorganic and organic substances is discussed in concise form together with theoretical and experimental backgrounds and practical applications.

1. INTRODUCTION

Radiation chemistry implies the study of chemical effects of interactions of ionizing radiation with materials. The term ionizing radiation in a wider sense is applied to photons or particles having sufficient energy to ionize the molecules of the medium: it involves photons with energies ranging from the first ionization energy of the medium (~10 eV) up to several MeV, as well as energetic charged particles, electrons, positrons, accelerated heavy ions, etc. The result of the energy absorption is breaking or rearrangement of chemical bonds. High-energy photons, charged species with sufficiently high energy and neutrons may be absorbed by the nuclei and cause nuclear reactions. This is the field of nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry or radiochemistry and these effects are not considered in radiation chemistry (Hummel 1992).

The field of radiation chemistry has been intensively investigated for about 100 years. However, there is a basic change in the approach. Until the 1950 s and 1960 s the main aim was to know more about the basic processes of absorption of radiation energy and about the chemical consequences of irradiation (Kroh 1989). In recent years radiation chemistry is more and more becoming a quite generally applicable method of reaction kinetics by which important kinetic parameters can be...