Oxygen consumption in EPDM irradiated under different oxygen pressures and at different LET

We conceived a novel set-up for measuring the radiochemical yields of oxygen consumption in polymers. The measurement is based on a sampling of the gas mixture with a mass spectrometer, before and after irradiation. We irradiated an ethylene, propylene and 1,4-hexadiene terpolymer (EPDM) with 1 MeV electron and 10.75 MeV/A carbon beams. Samples were irradiated under oxygen within a wide range of pressure (5-200 mbar). The yields under C irradiation are four times smaller than the yields under electron irradiation. This shows that radiooxidation is very sensitive to the linear energy transfer of the projectiles and hence to the heterogeneity of the energy deposition. The oxygen consumption yields do not vary significantly in the range of pressure investigated; even at 5 mbar, the kinetics is still governed by the bimolecular recombination of peroxy radicals.