Degradation of organolead species in aqueous solutions by electron beam irradiation

Electron beam irradiation of aqueous solutions containing different lead compounds (Pb(2+), (CH(3))(3)Pb(+), (C(2)H(5))(3)Pb(+)) 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 (C(2)H(5))(3)Pb(+) and more important for (CH(3))(3)Pb(+).