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Mechanism of HTO formation in gaseous tritium mixtures
Author(s) -
Papagiannakopoulos P. J.,
Easterly C. E.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
international journal of chemical kinetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1097-4601
pISSN - 0538-8066
DOI - 10.1002/kin.550140109
Subject(s) - chemistry , tritium , radical , argon , tritiated water , helium , kinetics , oxygen , nitrogen , radiochemistry , photochemistry , organic chemistry , nuclear physics , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract The mechanisms for the conversion of molecular tritium gas to tritiated water are examined for tritium mixtures with (1) oxygen and nitrogen, (2) oxygen and argon, and (3) water and helium, for which previous experimental data exist. By analyzing results of these experiments in light of the radiation chemistry involved in a mixture of tritium and other gases, an understanding of the conversion mechanisms is reached. The formation of H and/or OH free radicals as intermediate species is of particular significance in the formation of HTO in that these radicals initiate a number of reactions which lead to the formation of water. These reactions are analyzed in terms of steady‐state kinetics to obtain predictive models which can be judged against the experimental observations. For the three experimentally observed mixtures, model agreement is found to be within a factor of 2–3.