Effects of Commercial and Radiation-produced Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

RADIOBIOLOGISTS and radiation chemists have for many years been aware of the fact that hydrogen peroxide formed during irradiation may play a significant part as an agent of the changes brought about by ionizing radiations. The method of checking has often been to expose the test material to concentrations of hydrogen peroxide comparable with those produced by radiation, and hence to deduce what part of the radiation effects must be ascribed to other agents. However, such experiments may be misleading if commercial hydrogen peroxide is used, since the stabilizer which is usually present may inhibit the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into the intermediates which take part in the particular reactions being studied. Information is not always made available by manufacturers about the nature of the stabilizers used; my experience has shown that they are sometimes sufficiently volatile to distil over with the hydrogen peroxide, if redistillation is employed as a precautionary measure.