EPR Spectroscopic Study of Irradiated Saccharides

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a non-destructive technique which used usually for the identification and investigation of compounds containing unpaired electrons and hence it is considered as an effective tool for the identification and quantification of radiation doses delivered to irradiated materials. Here we investigate the EPR spectroscopic differences among poly, di- and monosaccharides irradiated to gamma radiation. Several parameters were studied: spectral features of monomers, dimers, and polymer molecules, microwave saturation behaviour, and the modulation amplitude impact on both of the signal height and the width. Also response to different radiation doses were investigated for each molecule and the time-dependence of the radiation-induced radicals were plotted and analysed. the study included glucose and fructose as monosaccharides, sucrose as a disaccharide, and starch as a polysaccharide. The study revealed thae resembelence of EPR spectra of sucrose and its constituents clucose and fructose with minor differences while the EPR spectra of starch showed more differences either in terms of peaks positions or peaks shapes. Response to ionizing radiation doses for all of them was found to be linear over the dose range (0.5 – 10) kGy. The stabilities of the radiation induced radicals were traced along 50 days after irradiation.