Photoexcitation of Metals Electron Photoemission into Solutions

323 PHOTOEXCITATION OF METALS (ELECTRON PHOTOEMISSION INTO SOLUTIONS) 

Events of electron photoemission from a metal into an aqueous solution was first documented in 1963 by Geoffrey C. Barker and Arthur W. Gardner on the basis of indirect experimental evidence. The formation of solvated electrons in nonaqueous solutions (e.g., following the dissolution of metallic sodium in liquid ammonia) had long been known, but it was only in the beginning of the 1950s that their existence in aqueous solutions was first thought possible. It is probably for this reason that even nowadays in aqueous solutions we more often find the term solvated than hydrated electrons. 

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