The study of some thiazinic and indaminic dye syntheses induced by ionising radiation

With a view to finding some radiochemical reactions applicable on an industrial scale for evaluating the radioactive waste from nuclear reactors, a systematic study was made of the radiochemical synthesis of thiazinic dyes such as methylene blue and Lauths' violet, on which the first tests were carried out in 1954. The first part of the study concerned the identification and the dosage, during radiolysis, of dyes by means of their absorption spectra after separation from the reaction medium by adsorption chromatography or ion-exchange; other radiolysis products such as ammonium chloride and hydrogen peroxide were also identified. During a later stage by systematically varying the physico-chemical parameters it was possible to determine the most favourable conditions for radio-synthesis; the maximum radiochemical yields obtained had the following values: G (Lauths' violet) 1,65; G (Methylene blue) = 1,75. Furthermore, the study of the influence of variously substituted aminated products on the radiochemical yield showed the possibility of synthesising Bindsehedlers green and Wursters blue by radiochemical methods. Finally the discovery of a fundamental intermediate product, Wursters red, together with the kinetic study of the chemical synthesis of methylene blue made it possible to determine the main stages of the reaction mechanism and to decide which of these stages could be attributed to ionising radiations in the case of the radiochemical synthesis. (author)