A L.E.T. INDEPENDENT DOSIMETER BASED ON THE CHEMILUMINESCENT DETERMINATION OF H₂O₂

Abstract

A sensitive method for the determination of H 2 O 2 based on the copper-catalyzed chemiluminescent reaction between luminol and H 2 O 2 has been developed. The integral luminescence measured with a modified spectrophotofluorometer was found to increase linearly with concentration for 3 × 10 −8 to 1.5 × 10 −5 M H 2 O 2 solutions. This method was applied to the determination of H 2 O 2 formed in irradiated water and it was shown that this system may be used as a dosimeter in the range 30 to 3 000 rads. The following values were obtained for the initial H 2 O 2 yields: G(H 2 O 2 ) = 1.22 ± 0.07 for 60 Co γ-radiation, 1.28 ± 0.09 for 250 kVcp (105 keV effective) X-radiation and 1.31 ± 0.04 for 14 MeV neutrons. These results and those of other workers demonstrate that the initial yield of H 2 O 2 in aerated water increases only by about 15% for an increase in radiation l.e.t. of 0.02 to 14 eV/Å.