Phys.org May 26, 2023 Low-energy electrons dissolved in liquid ammonia or aqueous media are powerful reducing agents that promote challenging reduction reactions but can also cause radiation damage to biological tissue. An international team of researchers (France, Switzerland) undertook a study to better understand the underlying mechanistic processes with respect to the details and energetics of the electron transfer steps. They showed how UV photoexcitation of metal-ammonia clusters could be used to generate tunable low-energy electrons in situ, identified UV light-induced generation of spin-paired solvated dielectrons and their subsequent relaxation by an unconventional electron-transfer-mediated decay as an efficient low-energy electron […]
Tag Archives: Solvated electrons
Nanoparticles make it easier to turn light into solvated electrons
Nanowerk January 17, 2023 Solvated electrons are powerful reducing agents capable of driving some of the most energetically expensive reduction reactions. It has been proposed that solvated electrons, which are powerful reducing agents, could be produced by photoexcitation of roughened metal electrodes, but no study has demonstrated a clear mechanism for their generation. A team of researchers in the US (Rice University, Stanford University, UT Austin) has shown that plasmons create solvated electrons in water. They showed that the yield of solvated electrons in water was increased more than 10 times for nanoparticle-decorated electrodes compared to smooth silver electrodes. Based […]