Competitive reactions in the radiolysis of liquid hydrocarbons

Although when a molecule is subjected to radiation only one reaction takes place at a time, the variety of products suggests a number of parallel physical and chemical processes. There is competition between bond ruptures: a rupture of any one bond 'stabilizes' every other bond of the molecule. In binary systems, there is also competition between transfer processes and chemical reactions: in some cases - depending on the ratio of components - even the resultant direction of transfer can change. (author)