Radical Cationic Pathway for the Decay of Ionized Glyme Molecules in Liquid Solution.

Chemical stability of primary radical cations (RCs) generated in irradiated matter determines substantially the radiation resistance of organic materials. Transformations of the RCs of the glyme molecules, R(-O-CH2-CH2-)nO-R (R = CH3, n = 1-4) has been studied on the nanosecond time scale by measuring the magnetic field effects in the recombination fluorescence from irradiated liquid solutions of the glymes. In all cases, the RCs observed were different from that expected for the primary ones and revealed very similar hyperfine couplings independent of the poly(ethylene oxide) chain length and of the substitution of terminal methyl groups by C2H5 or CH2CH2Cl, as has been shown with diglyme as an example.