Radiolysis studies on reactive intermediates

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

A more quantitative characterization of the structure and reaction mechanism of solvated electrons produced by high energy chemistry was developed. Neutral atoms may undergo solvation in polar media to cause significant geometrical rearrangement. The geometrical arrangement of six OH bond oriented water molecules around a localized electron is the preferred geometry in frozen aqueous systems even at low solute ion concentration. The energy level structure of electrons in polar aqueous and alcoholic glasses was systematized from a comparison of photoconductivity and optical spectra. Experimental and theoretical evidence on electron solvation was evaluated to suggest the dominance of first solvation shell orientation in the solvation process. A laser photolysis study as a function of temperature suggests that electron solvation in ethanol glass occurs by a hindered molecular reorientation mechanism. In mixed polar and nonpolar glassy matrices it was shown that the electron is first solvated in the nonpolar matrix and is later transformed to a more stable species surrounded by the polar molecules. It was found that the spin lattice relaxation of solvated electrons is dominated by a new mechanism characteristic of disordered matrices which involves relaxation by tunneling modes in the matrix. The noninteracting spin packet model of electron spin resonance lines was shown to apply to solvated electrons in deuterated matrices but not in protiated matrices. A new type of recombination fluorescence experiment was devised which allows easy distinction between tunnelling and diffusive recombination mechanisms between solvate electrons and cations. Several theoretical studies have helped to delimit the applicability of an electron tunneling mechanism to solvated electron reactions. Electron spin echospectrometry was used to demonstrate that silver atoms undergo dramatic solvation and desolvation changes in frozen aqueous systems.