Studies in useful hard x-ray photochemistry: decomposition of potassium halates

We performed a systematic study of radiation-induced decomposition rates of KClO₃, KClO₄, KBrO₃ and KIO₃ in glass capillaries using the monochromatic x-ray. We also performed a complementary white beam x-ray study to verify the presence of molecular oxygen released from the acatalytic, isothermal chemical reactions initiated by hard x-rays using a diamond anvil cell to seal the samples. The aim of these studies entailed better-understanding the effect of oxygen-oxygen distance and oxygen multiplicity in determining the x-ray induced decomposition rate of potassium halates to aid useful hard x-ray induced chemistry. The observed decomposition rate appears to strongly and inversely correlate with O-O distance which suggests that ionization events of oxygen atoms from the halate groups occur nearly simultaneously and irreversible chemical reaction of two ionized oxygen radicals occurs with a higher probability when they are closer to one another.