Carbon monoxide yields in the radiolysis of carbon dioxide at very high dose rates

Abstract

Carbon dioxide has been irradiated with electron pulses at a dose rate of 2 × 1027 eV g−1 s−1. The measured carbon monoxide yield is G(CO) = 7.8 ± 0.3. Addition of SF6, an electron scavenger, reduces this yield to G(CO) = 4.8 which is the same, within the experimental error, as the low dose rate yield G(CO) = 4.5 ± 0.5. The effect of SF6 and the difference between the high and low dose rate yields is explained by suppression of dissociative neutralization of the C2O4+ ion.