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Electron attachment to O2 has been studied for O2 -N2 and O2 -C2H4 mixtures over a wide range of pressures and electric fields. It was found that a, the probability of capture per cm and per mm Hg of O2, depends on the partial pressures of both gases in the 62 -N2 mixture but only on the C2H4 pressure in the O2 -C2H4 mixture. The data have been interpreted in terms of an extension of the mechanism postulated by Bloch and Bradbury, and by Bates and Massey, which involves first the formation of O2-* (excited O2 -) with subsequent collisional stabilization. On this basis estimates were made of the cross section for stabilization of 02~* by collisions with various kinds of molecules.

The ionization produced when Pu239 -particles were completely absorbed in binary gas mixtures having acetylene as one of the components was measured. The W value (electron volts per ion pair) was computed from the known energy and the indirectly measured ionization for various percentages of the two gases in the mixture. The W values for varying proportions of a binary gaseous mixture were then compared to Wm as determined by the equation 1/Wm = (1/Wil/Wi)Z + /W, where Z = /( + aP2) and Wm is the W value for a mixture of two gases having partial pressures Pi and P2 and W values W¡ and Wi, respectively. Good agreement was found when the following values were used for the empirical constant "a":