Primary Radicals Production from Water Fragmentation by Heavy Ions

The importance of fragmentation of water molecules by heavy ions is discussed for several different physical environments, including tumor treatment, planetary sciences and fission reactors. The characteristics of the fragmentation yields by electrons, protons and photons are presented and compared with fragmentation yields of water molecules by C3+ and O5+ ions at energies corresponding to the Bragg peak. It is shown that for low energy electron loss and high energy electron capture, the water molecules essentially blow-out, releasing a much larger fraction of Oq+ ions as compared with electrons, protons and photons.