Picture of the wet electron : a localized transient state in liquid water

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019..

A transient state of the excess electron in liquid water preceding the development of the solvation shell, the so-called wet electron, has been invoked to explain spectroscopic observations, but its binding energy and atomic structure have remained highly elusive. Here, we carry out hybrid functional molecular dynamics to unveil the ultrafast solvation mechanism leading to the hydrated electron. In the pre-hydrated regime, the electron is found to repeatedly switch between a quasi-free electron state in the conduction band and a localized state with a binding energy of 0.26 eV, which we assign to the wet electron. This transient state self-traps in a region of the liquid which extends up to ∼4.5 Å and involves a severe disruption of the hydrogen-bond network. Our picture provides an unprecedented view on the nature of the wet electron, which is instrumental to understanding the properties of this fundamental species in liquid water.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2019

Erschienen:

2019

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:10

Enthalten in:

Chemical science - 10(2019), 31 vom: 21. Aug., Seite 7442-7448

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Pizzochero, Michele [VerfasserIn]
Ambrosio, Francesco [VerfasserIn]
Pasquarello, Alfredo [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 28.09.2020

published: Electronic-eCollection

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.1039/c8sc05101a

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM30767570X