Gas phase radiation chemistry of ethyl bromide

The γ radiolysis of ethyl bromide has been investigated at 100 Torr pressure and 230C. In the pure system between an absorbed dose of 1.0 x 1020 and 1.5 x 1020 eV/g the major products and their respective G values are as follows: hydrogen bromide, 3.89; ethane, 2.70; ethylene, 2.17; acetylene, 0.31; hydrogen, 1.39; 1,1-dibromoethane, 0.88; 1,2-dibromoethane, 0.12; vinyl bromide, 0.32; methane, 0.083; methyl bromide, 0.080; and bromoform, 0.0078. When oxygen is added, the G values in this dose range become the following: hydrogen bromide, 4.89; ethane, 0.31; ethylene, 0.78; acetylene, 0.27; hydrogen, 1.38; 1,1-dibromoethane, 0.028; 1,2-dibromoethane, 0.56; vinyl bromide, 0.0; methane 0.03; methyl bromide, 0.32; and bromoform, 0.0034. Bromine is also formed with a G value of 2.4 when oxygen is added. The presence of hydrogen and acetylene in the radiolysis indicates that these species must be formed from higher energy processes not accessible in the 253.7-nm photolysis, which was studied in a parallel investigation. The product distribution indicates that the probabilities of single bond rupture in the primary event are approximately C2H5--Br:C2H4Br--H:CH3--CH2Br = 1.00:0.40:0.06. Either a hot hydrogen atom abstraction reaction or direct molecular H2 elimination accounts for about 16 percent of the hydrogen yield. Strong similarities in dose-yield plots suggest that many of the secondary processes involved in the photolysis are important in the radiolysis of ethyl bromide as well. The high pressure mass spectrometry of the system indicates the role of ionic species. Differences in radiolytic behavior of ethyl chloride, bromide, and iodide can largely be explained in terms of the energetics of the primary and secondary processes in each system