Sucrose as a dosimetric material for photon and heavy particle radiation: A review

Fourth stable radical species in X-irradiated solid-state sucrose

High-energy radiation produces radicals in crystalline sucrose. As such, sucrose is considered as a relevant model system for studying radiation damage to the sugar units of DNA. Many of these radicals are stable, detectable at room temperature with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and their concentration is proportional to the absorbed dose in a considerable range. This makes sucrose also an interesting system for dosimetry. Dose assessment protocols rely on measurements of the total intensity of the EPR powder spectrum, so it is likely that they could be further improved if the composite nature of the spectrum was understood completely. Recently, it was shown that the three known stable radicals can only account for the central part of the spectrum and that features in the wings remain unidentified. In this work, we show, based on the analysis of the powder EPR patterns recorded at three microwave frequencies, that the contribution of one more species is sufficient to explain the entire spectrum. The determination of the spin Hamiltonian parameters is corroborated by a Q-band (34 GHz) single crystal electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) analysis. The chemical structure of the fourth species is explored by analysis of the determined g and four (1)H hyperfine (HF) tensors, and verified using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The ENDOR spectrum of the largest HF interaction of the fourth species was exploited to isolate the radical's absorption-like EPR spectrum from a multicomponent powder pattern.

EMR Study and DFT-Assisted Identification of Transient Radicals in X-Irradiated Crystalline Sucrose

Solid-state sucrose is a well-known dosimetric system, which is capable of reliable dose estimates only at a considerable time after exposure. Immediately after irradiation at room temperature, its electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum is dominated by contributions from unstable radicals, which are studied here using continuous-wave EPR and electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy. Four hyperfine tensors of proton couplings were determined, associated with two radical species, and subsequently compared to density functional theory calculation results, which led to the identification of the species with lower abundance (U2) as a radical formed by a H abstraction from C4. The more abundant center (U1) has not been definitively identified yet, but we present compelling evidence that it should be a C6 centered radical. Comparison of the simulated EPR spectra with all available data to the experimental ones suggests that the EPR spectrum of X-irradiated sucrose immediately after irradiation can now be almost entirely understood.