Radiation chemistry research using PULAF

The details of the recently installed 7 MeV Pune University LINAC Facility (PULAF) coupled with the optical absorption technique for pulse radiolysis studies at the National Centre for Free Radical Research, Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune, India are described. The facility has a selection of electron pulse widths in the range 10 ns-3 μs with corresponding doses of about 5-144 Gy per pulse. The operation of the machine and the detection system are fully automated. Several researchers from various Indian universities and national laboratories use the PULAF and some of the projects that are currently undertaken by our group and others include the radiation chemistry of indole and chalcone derivatives, herbal antioxidants, structure-reactivity studies in cinnamates, redox chemistry of inorganic metal complexes, studies on oxidation of pyrimidine analogues and aromatic sulphur compounds. Some of them are briefly discussed here.