RADIOLYSIS OF SOLUTIONS OF ETHYLENE IN ETHANE

The radiation chemistry of pure liquid ethane at low doses and of solutions of C2D4 in liquid ethane has been studied in order to obtain more information on the relative importance of scavenging of H atoms and of positive ions by olefins in hydrocarbon solutions. At low concentrations of product C2H4 or of added C2D4, H-atom scavenging is the predominant reaction and the effect of dose on the major products from pure ethane obeys a simple kinetic expression. At higher concentrations of added C2D4 an ionic reaction, which appears to be simple charge transfer, becomes increasingly significant. The concentration dependence of this latter reaction is adequately described by an expression which other workers have found to apply to several cases of electron and positive-ion scavenging. A few experiments with added oxygen lead to the conclusion that it acts as a simple radical scavenger only at very low concentrations.