Radiolysis of water in the vicinity of passive surfaces

•HO° production through water radiolysis is enhanced near metal surfaces.•Hastelloy and Stainless steel surfaces can also produce HO° radicals through hydrogen peroxide activation.•There is a deficit in solvated electron production compared to hydroxyl radicals near metal surfaces.

Porous metals were used to describe the water radiolysis in the vicinity of metal surfaces. The hydroxyl radical production under gamma irradiation was measured by benzoate scavenging in water confined in a 200 nm porous Ni base alloy or in Stainless steel. The presence of the metallic surfaces changed drastically the HO° production level and lifetime. The solvated electron production was measured via glycylglycine scavenging for Stainless steel and was found to be significantly smaller than hydroxyl production. These observations imply that interfacial radiolysis may deeply impact the corrosion behavior of the SS and Ni based alloys.