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Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol.99, No.28, 11292-11296, 1995
Heavy-Ion Radiolysis of Cyclopentane
The radiolysis of neat and iodine solutions of cyclopentane has been performed with 1-15 MeV protons, 5-20 MeV helium ions, 12-31 MeV carbon ions, and 22-32 MeV oxygen ions. The yields of the major products cyclopentene, bicyclopentyl, 1-pentene, and cyclopentyl iodide as well as the yields of a few select minor products have been determined. All products show a decrease in yield with increasing linear energy transfer (LET) of the irradiating particle. Some of these decreases are very large; for instance, the observed drop in the yield of bicyclopentyl from gamma-rays (LET = 0.14 eV/nm) to oxygen ions (LET = 900 eV/nm) amounts to a net loss of about 4 cyclopentyl radicals/100 eV absorbed energy. This value is 80% of the total cyclopentyl radicals produced in gamma-radiolysis. There are some indications that the yields of radicals due to decomposition of excited cyclopentane molecules are dependent on the energy and type of irradiating particle.