Lifetime of Charged Species in Irradiated Dielectric Liquids

Abstract

The distribution of lifetimes of the charged species formed in cyclohexane by high‐energy radiation is calculated using the experimental results on the number of these species reacting with solutes as a function of the concentration of the solutes. The time in which half of the ions recombine, when no reaction with a solute takes place, is 6 × 10⁻¹⁰ sec. Due to the fact that the diffusion coefficient of the negative entity in cyclohexane at room temperature is very large (2.5 × 10⁻⁴ cm² sec⁻), scavenging of this entity increases the lifetime of the ions considerably. The effect of scavenging of the negative entity on the lifetime distribution is calculated. At large concentrations of α‐chlorotoluene the lifetimes of the ions are increased by a factor of 16, approximately. The rate constant for the reaction of the negative entity with α‐chlorotoluene at room temperature has been estimated at 4 × 10⁻¹¹ cm³ sec⁻¹.