Capture of the trapped electron in alcohol glasses

Scavenging of the presolvated electron was studied. In many matrices, the secondary electron is stabilized in shallow traps at first, and then it becomes solvated to deepen the potential well. Because the tunneling rate depends strongly on the height of the potential, scavenging by tunneling from the presolvated state possibly overcomes the tunneling from the solvated state even if the lifetime of the presolvated state is very short. Scavengers (benzene, fluorobenzene, chlorobenzene, bromobenzene, iodobenzene, o-chlorotoluene, o- bromotoluene, and o-dichlorobenzene) were added to alcohols (methanol, ethanol, 1- propanol, and 2-propanol) and were cooled rapidly to make clear glasses. These glasses were irradiated by $gamma$ rays at 77$sup 0$K with the dose of about 0.2 Mrad. The yield of the solvated electron was estimated from the optical density of the wavelength of the peak of the absorption spectrum. For every scavenger, the efficiencies in the 1-propanol glasses are larger than those in the ethanol glass. Solvation times and tunneling radii were calculated. (JGB)