Electron affinities and Marcus reorganization energies. A correlation between gas phase electron affinities and solution phase redox potentials

Abstract

Redox potentials determined by cyclic voltammetry were used in conjunction with published electron affinities to determine the solvation energies for series of three classes of compounds: substituted benzoquinones, substituted nitrobenzenes, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Excellent linear correlations were obtained between the measured electron affinities and the E0 of the substrates. The calculated electron affinities, EA (E0), were computed using the average solvation energies for the three classes of compounds, and were found to be in excellent agreement with the measured values. The nitrobenzenes and quinones had one solvation energy, while the aromatic hydrocarbons were correlated with a significantly different value. The solvation energy of a variety of compounds could also be related to their Marcus reorganization energiesλ(0), by a linear plot with a high correlation coefficient. From simple electrochemical measurements of similar compounds, either electron affinities or Marcus λ(0) values can be estimated. Keywords: electron affinities, Marcus reorganization energies, cyclic voltammetry.