The world’s first course in radiation chemistry was delivered by Professor Natalya Alekseevna Bakh in 1949. The specialization “radiation chemistry” was organized at the Department of Electrochemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University in connection with the emergence of atomic technology. Officially, in February 1954, by the decision of the USSR Ministry of Higher Education, a laboratory of radiation chemistry was established as part of the Department of Electrochemistry (Head of the Department, Academician A.N. Frumkin), headed by prof. N. A. Bakh. At the same time, she headed the Department of Radiation Chemistry of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which allocated one room for student studies in radiation chemistry. In December 1956, the laboratory premises were commissioned (240 sq. m., including the X-ray room, the student workshop, five research laboratories and the office of the head of the laboratory), furniture was brought in, locks were installed, and scientific equipment was transported from warehouses. The laboratory had two powerful X-ray units for irradiation. The laboratory staff consisted of 10 full-time employees, students, graduate students and trainees.
Initially, two basic scientific directions were chosen – (1) radiolysis and radiative oxidation of organic compounds and (2) radiolysis of concentrated aqueous solutions of strong acids. Subsequently, the topic has changed significantly.
Over the 64 years of its existence, the laboratory has trained more than 180 young specialists, more than 60 candidates of chemical sciences through postgraduate studies and without it. Among its graduates are 14 doctors of chemical sciences. The laboratory team published 10 books and brochures, 12 manuals, one of which, the world’s first educational workshop on radiation chemistry, was secretly taken to the UK and translated into English there. More than 1000 scientific articles and reviews have been published, 55 copyright certificates and patents have been received, more than 500 reports have been made at International, All-Union, All-Russian, regional conferences and meetings.
The Laboratory of Radiation Chemistry was headed by:
Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor Natalia Alekseevna Bakh (1954 – 1973)
Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor Lenar Timofeevich Bugaenko (1974 – 2000)
Doctor of Chemical Sciences. Professor Vladimir Isaevich Feldman (from 2001 to the present)
Today the laboratory staff consists of 18 employees, including 11 researchers, including 2 Doctors of Science and 9 Candidates of Science.
Currently, the main directions of scientific research are related to the radiation chemistry of solid organic and polymeric systems, the study of the structure and reactivity of primary radical ion intermediates of radiation-chemical transformations, as well as radiation-chemical methods for obtaining nanostructures and nanocomposites.
A special place in the modern topics of the laboratory is occupied by studies of radiation-chemical transformations of isolated molecules in matrices of solid noble gases at temperatures in the helium range, as well as the structure and properties of new molecules and radicals with unusual mi chemical bonds – noble gas hydrides such as HNgY. The laboratory has original methods and a unique set of helium cryostats for such studies using IR and EPR spectroscopy.