Radiolysis of Dicarboxylic Acid Lithium Salt with Neutron Irradiation

Abstract

A series of dicarboxylic acids of Li-(CH₂)_n(COOLi)₂, n=05, i.e., Li-oxalate, -malonate, -succinate, -glutalate, -adipate and -pimelate, was irradiated with mixed radiations in a nuclear reactor. The subject of study was the decarboxylation and the reaction of labelling with T atoms brought about by the exposure of the dicarboxylic acid lithium salts to neutrons.
The T-labelled hydrocarbons were determined by radiogaschromatography, while gaschro-matography was used to measure macroscopic amounts of compounds. The gaseous products of radiolysis produced from the neutron irradiation of dicarboxylic acid lithium salt were CO₂, CO and hydrocarbons.
The yield of CO₂ from the different dicarboxylic acid lithium salts was higher than obtained from γ-ray irradiation, and decreased with increasing number of methylene groups in the original salt. Also, while with y-radiolysis, CO is only generated in negligibly small amounts, it was found quite significant in the present case of neutron irradiation. The yield of tritiated hydro-carbon was proportional to the number of methylene groups in the salt molecule. Hydrocarbon was mainly produced by the decarboxylation of the original compounds. Several kinds of degradated hydrocarbon were also observed from the mass peaks as also from activity peaks.