Solvated electron effects

Jou FY, Freeman GR. (1977) Shapes of optical spectra of solvated electrons. Effect of pressure. J Phys Chem 81 909-915. 

Solutions of alkali metals in liquid ammonia are used in organic chemistry as reducing agents. The deep blue solutions effectively contain solvated electrons (p. 126), for example... 

The same conclusion was reached in a kinetic study of solvent effects in reactions of benzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate with substituted phenols. As expected due to the difference in solvation, the effects of para substituents are smaller in protic than in dipolar aprotic solvents. Alkyl substitution of phenol in the 2-position was found to increase the coupling rate, again as would be expected for electron-releasing substituents. However, this rate increase was larger in protic than in dipolar aprotic solvents, since in the former case the anion solvation is much stronger to begin with, and therefore steric hindrance to solvation will have a larger effect (Hashida et al., 1975 c). 

S-N bond cleavage 159 S-O bond lengths 543 Solvated electrons 897, 905 Solvent effects 672 in elimination reactions 772 S-O stretching frequencies 543, 545, 546, 552-555, 560-562 Spiroconjugation 390 Stereoselectivity 779, 789 of cylcoaddition reactions 799 of sulphones 761 Steroids... 

Section 3 deals with reactions in which at least one of the reactants is an inorganic compound. Many of the processes considered also involve organic compounds, but autocatalytic oxidations and flames, polymerisation and reactions of metals themselves and of certain unstable ionic species, e.g. the solvated electron, are discussed in later sections. Where appropriate, the effects of low and high energy radiation are considered, as are gas and condensed phase systems but not fully heterogeneous processes or solid reactions. Rate parameters of individual elementary steps, as well as of overall reactions, are given if available. 

Farhataziz et al. (1974a, b) studied the effect of pressure on eam and found that as the pressure is increased from 9 bar to 6.7 Kbar at 23° (1) the primary yield of e decreases from 3.2 to 2.0 (2) hv increases from 0.67 to 0.91 eV (3) the half-width of the absorption spectrum on the high-energy side increases by 35% and (4) the extinction coefficient decreases by 19%, which is similar to eh. The pressure effects are consistent with the large volume of ean (98 ml/M), whereas the reduction in the observed primary yield at 0.1 ps is attributable to the reaction eam + NH4+. Some of the properties of eam have been discussed by several authors in Solvated Electron (Hart, 1965). 

Of all the solvated electrons, eh is the most reactive several thousand of its reactions have been measured and, in many cases, activation energies, the effects of pH, and so forth, determined (Anbar and Neta, 1965 Anbar et al, 1973 Ross, 1975 CRC Handbook, 1991). Relatively few reactions of eamhave been studied because of its low reactivity. Rates of reactions of the solvated electron with certain scavengers are also available in alcohols, amines, and ethers. 

We should remember (1) that the activation energy of eh reactions is nearly constant at 3.5 0.5 Kcal/mole, although the rate of reaction varies by more than ten orders of magnitude and (2) that all eh reactions are exothermic. To some extent, other solvated electron reactions behave similarly. The theory of solvated electron reaction usually follows that of ETR in solution with some modifications. We will first describe these theories briefly. This will be followed by a critique by Hart and Anbar (1970), who favor a tunneling mechanism. Here we are only concerned with fe, the effect of diffusion having been eliminated by applying Eq. (6.18). Second, we only consider simple ETRs where no bonds are created or destroyed. However, the comparison of theory and experiment in this respect is appropriate, as one usually measures the rate of disappearance of es rather than the rate of formation of a product. 

Of course the structural changes represented in Table 1 are much more complex than the simple bond angle plus electronic effect analysis reveals. For example, solvation of the carbene may depend on the details of its structure, and solvation undoubtedly influences chemical and physical properties (Langan et al., 1984). Nonetheless, it is possible to develop a good grasp of the most important properties of aromatic carbenes from the simple considerations described above. Before we proceed to examine these relationships in more detail, the carbene properties of interest must be identified, and the experimental procedures available for measurement of these properties must be critically considered. 

FIGURE 3.4 Deprotection of functional groups by reduction with sodium in liquid ammonia [du Vigneaud et al., 1930]. As in Figure 3.3, except reduction is effected by solvated electrons and protons are provided by water at the end of the reaction. Excess sodium is destroyed by NH4C1. This is a simplified presentation of the reaction. AH benzyl-based protectors as well as -Arg(N02)-, -Arg(Tos)-, and -His(Tos)- are sensitive to sodium in liquid ammonia. 

When (5(15N) values for the previously used series of 13 para-substituted anilines were measured in acetone42, a significantly weaker hydrogen-bond acceptor solvent than DMSO, a smaller shift dependence on para TT-electron-acceptor substituent solvation (SSAR) effects in acetone was observed (Table 10). This reduction42 was expressed by the (rather unsatisfactory) forms, 4 and 5. 

It seems reasonable to note that the micro-jet stream generated by the ultrasonic cavitation promotes mass transport. Such an effect was discussed for proton transport in aqueous solutions (Atobe et al. 1999). Understandably, a proton moves in the solution as a hydrated particle. Nevertheless, we should pay attention on the similarity between proton and electron, in the sense that both are essentially quantum particles. A solvated electron, therefore, can be considered as a species that is similar to a hydrated proton. Hence, the micro-jet stream can promote electron transfer. 

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