Our earlier results on ασ and heavy‐ion‐radiation damage in cellulose triacetate (CTA) are compared with those of previous authors on UV‐and γ‐radiation damage in the same material. Thus the common effects of these different methods of irradiation can be distinguished from those characteristic of the radiation employed. With heavy‐ion radiation the production of stable radicals is accompanied by C—O cleavage. In the case of  3684Kr (1 MeV/amu) ions, the number of free radicals produced is investigated, without distinguishing the species, by using the scavenger technique in the solid phase, combined with UV spectroscopy. On the other hand, C—O cleavage is observed by IR spectroscopy, with its inherent selectivity. A statistical study shows that the experimental curves representative of the evolution of the optical transmittance ratio before and after irradiation L(N) versus the ion fluence N are of exponential type: where β is a parameter related to the volume damaged by a single ion and, therefore, to the latent track size. The latter is approximated by a cylinder whose height is equal to the range of the ion. For  3684Kr8+ (1.1 MeV/amu) the track length is 21 μ. For each type, damages are localized within a radius of 250 Å for free‐radical yields, 148 Å for cellulosic chain cleavages, 108 Å for deacetylation, and 100 Å for opening of pyrannosic rings. The track length is 14 μ for  1735Cl6+ (1 MeV/amu), while the radius of the cylinder in which free radicals are produced is only 80 Å.

The kinetic interpretation of the damage produced by heavy ions ( 3684Kr and  1735Cl from 1 MeV/amu) and γ radiation in cellulose triacetate leads to an exponential dependence on the ion fluence. A comparison of the fading effect produced by heavy ions and γ rays shows that the heavy ions, unlike γ rays, cause irreversible damage. Finally, a nonlinear dependence on the flux of ions and γ rays is found in the kinetics of radiation damage. This result is contrary to the usual assumption that heavy‐ion flux, like γ‐ray flux, is additive, at least for the fluxes of 109−2 × 1010 ions/cm2s and dose rates of 103–104 Gy/h used in this work.