Exploring vibrational intermolecular Coulombic decay in mixed water clusters: From vibrations to electron solvation

Low kinetic energy electrons are implicated in almost all primary physico-chemical phenomena in nature underlying atmospheric and radiation chemistry and charge-induced reactivity. For extended systems—like hydrogen bond clusters and liquids, those slow electrons can likely terminate into thermalized or solvated electrons — the smallest possible anions. Solvated electrons can be considered as potent reducing agents in many chemical reactions. They could for example be produced in sea water and react with CO2, converting it into useful and simple organic molecules. They could also be used for the treatment of contaminated water by breaking down chemical pollutants such as nitrates and organic chlorides. Despite the promoting role of solvated electrons in many chemical reactions in nature, understanding of the primary steps of their formation is, however, still missing. All the investigations over the last years have only provided important insight into the properties and dynamics of solvated electrons, but to date no study has demonstrated a clear mechanism for their generation. Here I propose a research method to establish this missing link based on how to turn vibrational energy stored in photoexcited molecular cluster into slow electrons that can in turn be solvated in the chemical environment. To realize this method, I will use mixed water clusters as model system and then vibrationally excite them with Mid-infrared (Mid-IR) radiations.