Experimental and theoretical research on γ-irradiated 7-methoxy-4-methylcoumarin powder through EPR and DFT methods

In this paper, the effects of gamma irradiation on 7-Methoxy-4-methylcoumarin (7M4MC) molecule, an essential coumarin derivative, which has an inherent variety of biological activities, therapeutic properties and industrial usage were examined. For this purpose, the sample was irradiated with 60Co-gamma ray source for about 100 kGy total doses. Theoretical calculations were performed using GAUSSIAN03 program for the possible radicals that were modeled from two stable conformations with lowest energies. In order to get well-resolved spectra and to determine the radical identity experimentally, EPR spectra of the irradiated 7M4MC sample were recorded at several spectrometer conditions. By considering the molecular structure and EPR spectra, alkyl-type radical was assumed to be formed by gamma irradiation. To support the estimations, simulations were done using theoretical EPR parameters as an initial value. The experimental spectra were well matched with the sum of simulated spectra obtained from two same type modeled radicals of two different conformations. As a result of experimental estimations and theoretical calculations, radiation-induced radicals were identified as two neutral alkyl radicals, CH2(C9O2H4)OCH3, originated from two stable conformations.