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Abstract
It has been debated for years if the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon phenanthrene exists in its anionic form, or, in other words, if its electron affinity (EA) is positive or negative. In this contribution we confirm that the bare phenanthrene anion Ph- created in a binary collision with an electron at room temperature has a lifetime shorter than microseconds. However, the embedding of neutral phenanthrene molecules in negatively charged helium nanodroplets enables the formation of phenanthrene anions by charge transfer processes and the stabilization of the latter in the ultracold environment. Gentle shrinking of the helium matrix of phenanthrene-doped HNDs by collisions with helium gas makes the bare Ph- visible by high-resolution mass spectrometry. From these and previous measurements we conclude, that the EA of phenanthrene is positive and smaller than 24.55 meV.
Department
Physics
Publication Date
5-4-2022
Journal Title
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Language
English
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
S. Kollotzek, F. Izadi, M. Meyer, S. Bergmeister, F. Zappa, S. Denifl, O. Echt, P. Scheier, E. Gruber, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 24 (2022) 11662-11667
Comments
This article is part of the themed collection: New Trends and Challenges in Surface Phenomena, Carbon Nanostructures and Helium Droplets
This is an Open Access article published by Royal Society of Chemistry in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics in 2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP00991A