Degradation of organolead species in aqueous solutions by electron beam irradiation

Electron beam irradiation of aqueous solutions containing different lead compounds (Pb^2+, (CH3)3Pb+, (C2H5)3Pb+) was carried out. Formate and hydrogen peroxide were used as radical scavengers to elucidate the influence of the different species generated by water radiolysis. The precipitation of Pb^2+, only observed in the presence of formate, was attributed to COO.but the nature of the precipitate is still unclear. Organolead compounds were shown to be efficiently degraded, probably converted into Pb^2+, using doses around 4 kGy. In the absence of scavengers, the degradation occurred according to the alkyl group stability. Both trialkyllead compounds were shown to be degraded by HO.. On the contrary, the contribution of hydrogen atoms (H.) was shown to be highly dependent on the nature of the alkyl group, i.e. negligible for (C2H5)3Pb+ and more important for (CH3)3Pb+.