Radical chemistry in water
We are interested in radical chemistry in water, the most common solvent on Earth and also that of living things. This very spatially heterogeneous chemistry is produced by ionizing radiation such as accelerated electrons, protons or heavy ions and extends from 10-16 s to 1 µs. We focus on phenomena occurring with high ionization densities that we encounter for example in Bragg peaks (ends of traces), or even with extreme dose rates.
Primary effects of energetic particles in liquids under extreme thermodynamics conditions
The generation of radical species triggered by nuclear reactions which produce elevated Linear Energy Transfer (LET) ionizing particles in aqueous media, as well as their reactivity, may be drastically affected by extreme thermodynamic conditions (temperatures higher than 300°C, pressures higher than 100 MPa, acidic or alkaline pH).
Such effects are studied by experimental and computational techniques.
A related project under development concerns the use of new energetic particle sources driven by high intensity lasers.
These sources deliver femtosecond bunches of MeV-electrons and also high LET protons, carbons which rendering possible the study of their interaction with various molecular systems, probed by optical spectroscopy.