Ultrafast spectroscopy, hydrated electron

When an electron is injected into a polar solvent such as water or alcohols, the electron is solvated and forms so-called the solvated electron. This solvated electron is considered the most basic anionic species in solutions and it has been extensively studied by variety of experimental and theoretical methods. Especially, the solvated electron in water (the hydrated electron) has been attracting much interest in wide fields because of its fundamental importance. It is well-known that the solvated electron in water exhibits a very broad absorption band peaked around 720 nm. This broad absorption is mainly attributed to the s- p transition of the electron in a solvent cavity. Recently, we measured picosecond time-resolved Raman scattering from water under the resonance condition with the s- p transition of the solvated electron, and found that strong transient Raman bands appeared in accordance with the generation of the solvated electron [1]. It was concluded that the observed transient Raman scattering was due to the water molecules that directly interact with the electron in the first solvation shell. Similar results were also obtained by a nanosecond Raman study [2]. This finding implies that we are now able to study the solvated electron by using vibrational spectroscopy. In this paper, we describe new information about the ultrafast dynamics of the solvated electron in water, which are obtained by time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy. 

This narrative echoes the themes addressed in our recent review on the properties of uncommon solvent anions. We do not pretend to be comprehensive or inclusive, as the literature on electron solvation is vast and rapidly expanding. This increase is cnrrently driven by ultrafast laser spectroscopy studies of electron injection and relaxation dynamics (see Chap. 2), and by gas phase studies of anion clusters by photoelectron and IR spectroscopy. Despite the great importance of the solvated/ hydrated electron for radiation chemistry (as this species is a common reducing agent in radiolysis of liquids and solids), pulse radiolysis studies of solvated electrons are becoming less frequent perhaps due to the insufficient time resolution of the method (picoseconds) as compared to state-of-the-art laser studies (time resolution to 5 fs ). The welcome exceptions are the recent spectroscopic and kinetic studies of hydrated electrons in supercriticaF and supercooled water. As the theoretical models for high-temperature hydrated electrons and the reaction mechanisms for these species are still rmder debate, we will exclude such extreme conditions from this review. 

AI-water complexes with more than three waters have received less attention because it is believed that such large complexes cannot be directly involved in the tautomerization. Moreover, these complexes are difficult to be spectroscopically assigned due to the complexity of their electronic [11] and vibrational [10] structures. 7AI with four waters was studied by Fohner et al. [27] using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy combined with theoretical calculations. Their results revealed that the proton-transfer rate increases compared to that of 7AI with two and three waters. Their deuteration studies provided proof for the occurrence of proton transfer (PT), although it was not conclusively confirmed that the proton transfer resulted in a complete tautomerization of the 7AI monomer. For even bigger clusters of 7AI with five waters, there are no experimental investigations available only a theoretical study was reported on the second hydration shell effect [45]. 

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