The Photochemical and Radiation-chemical Stability of Molecules. Unimolecular Reactions Involving the Abstraction of a Hydrogen Atom

The ways in which electronically excited molecular systems are deactivated are examined, a theory of the non-adiabatic and predissociation mechanisms for the decomposition of molecular systems with elimination of a hydrogen atom is described, and the isotope effect in this reaction is discussed and compared with experimental data. The photochemical stability of molecules of different classes, radical-cations, and radicals is explained on the basis of the theoretical results. The evolution of atomic hydrogen (formation of radicals) in low-temperature radiation-chemical experiments is associated with the position of the lowest triplets state of the molecules, their ionisation potentials, the polarity of the medium, and the energies of the C–H bonds in the radical-cations.
The bibliography includes 95 references.