Abstract
A CONSIDERABLE amount of research has been carried out on the chemical effects which are produced by alpha-particles in liquids. So far, no satisfactory theory has been proposed to account for the fundamental processes involved in these reactions. From early studies, extended by recent work in this Department, of the ionization currents which can be collected from liquids, it is clear that the vast majority of ions recombine almost immediately. Jaffé1 has shown in his ‘column theory of ionization’ that in liquids the half-life for recombination is 10−7 sec, due to diffusion alone. It has been pointed out by Kramers2 that, due to the intense electrostatic fields which must exist in such columns of ionization, the half-life should be substantially reduced. It therefore appears impossible to explain the main features of the chemical experiments simply in terms of the production of ions, especially in view of the independence of chemical yield upon concentration of the reactants.
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References
Jaffé, G., Ann. der Phys., 42, 303 (1913).
Gerrison, A. N., Com. K. Onnes Lab., 275 (1948).
Richards, E. W. T., and Cole, J. F. I., Nature, 167, 286 (1951).
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DEE, P., RICHARDS, E. Chemical Effects in Liquids due to α-Particle Irradiation. Nature 168, 736 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168736a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/168736a0
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