Pulse radiolysis of highly concentrated poly(4-hydroxystyrene) (PHS) solutions in cyclohexanone and p-dioxane was performed both with and without an onium-type photoacid generator (PAG). With increasing PHS concentration, the rate constant of deprotonation of PHS radical cations was found to decrease. In the presence of PAG, the yield of the multimer radical cation of PHS was shown to decrease. We found that pairing between the anions produced by the attachment of dissociative electrons of PAGs and the monomer PHS radical cations restrict local molecular motions, leading to the formation of the multimer PHS radical cations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.