Dynamics of Electrons in Ammonia Cages: The Discovery System of Solvation
- Creators
- Lee, I-Ren
- Lee, Wonchul
- Zewail, Ahmed H.
Abstract
Two centuries ago solvated electrons were discovered in liquid ammonia and a century later the concept of the solvent cage was introduced. Here, we report a real time study of the dynamics of size-selected clusters, n=20 to 60, of electrons in ammonia, and, for comparison, that of electrons in water cages. Unlike the water case, the observed dynamics for ammonia indicates the formation, through a 100 fs temperature jump, of a solvent collective motion in a 500 fs relaxation process. The agreement of the experimental results—obtained for a well-defined n, gated electron kinetic energy, and time delay—with molecular dynamics theory suggests the critical and different role of the kinetic energy and the librational motions involved in solvation.
Additional Information
© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. Received: September 25, 2007. Published online on November 23, 2007. Version of Record online: 23 Nov 2007. This work was financially supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 69655
- DOI
- 10.1002/cphc.200700562
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160816-095603021
- NSF
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- Created
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2016-08-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field