Degradation of organolead species in aqueous solutions by electron beam irradiation

Abstract

Electron beam irradiation of aqueous solutions containing different lead compounds (Pb 2+, (CH 3) 3Pb +, (C 2H 5) 3Pb +) was carried out. Formate and hydrogen peroxide were used as radical scavengers to elucidate the influence of the different species generated by water radiolysis. The precipitation of Pb 2+, only observed in the presence of formate, was attributed to COO − but the nature of the precipitate is still unclear. Organolead compounds were shown to be efficiently degraded, probably converted into Pb 2+, using doses around 4 kGy. In the absence of scavengers, the degradation occurred according to the alkyl group stability. Both trialkyllead compounds were shown to be degraded by HO . On the contrary, the contribution of hydrogen atoms (H ) was shown to be highly dependent on the nature of the alkyl group, i.e. negligible for (C 2H 5) 3Pb + and more important for (CH 3) 3Pb +.