Water radiolysis with heavy-ion beams at GANIL. Back to 20 years of investigations

Gérard Baldacchino (1, 2)

1 DICO - Dynamique et Interactions en phase Condensée
2 LIDYL - Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamiques et Lasers (ex SPAM)

This article reports a short history of the studies carried out in the domain of radiation chemistry with the swift heavy ions of GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d'lons Lourds) during the last 20 years. The originality of these studies lays on two main aspects which were never been investigated simultaneously before: 1) the energy of the GANIL ions provides an energy deposition in small samples (few millimeters) that can be considered as almost constant; this allows studies on LET-effect on radiolytic yields, 2) production of pulses as short as a few nanoseconds made available the access to pulse radiolysis method and the study of transient chemical species such as hydrated electron, hydroxyl radical and superoxide. Future is now focus on high temperature effects on water radiolysis for which, again, nothing exist but only simulations and speculations.

Domaines: Chimie théorique et/ou physique

Gérard Baldacchino. Water radiolysis with heavy-ion beams at GANIL. Back to 20 years of investigations. CIRIL, 30 years of interdisciplinary research at GANIL, Oct 2013, caen, France. pp.012009, ⟨10.1088/1742-6596/629/1/012009⟩. ⟨cea-01296583⟩