Investigation on radiation degradation of carboxymethylcellulose by ionizing irradiation.

This study was done to compare the effects of irradiations with gamma-rays and electron beams, on the viscosity of the carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), on the functional groups of CMC, and on the production of radicals. It was observed that the relative viscosities decreased as the irradiation doses increased, but the decrease was more significant when irradiation with gamma rays. FT-IR spectra showed no significant difference between the gamma-ray and the electron beam irradiated samples. ESR spectra showed that the gamma-ray irradiation produced more radicals than electron beam irradiation in CMC.