Pulse Radiolysis of Liquid Deuterated Ammonia

Pulse radiolysis of solutions of alkali metal amides in deuterated ammonia at −15 °C produces an initial absorption with a maximum at 1500 nm due to the solvated electron, eam−. This decays on a microsecond time scale giving a residual long lived absorption with a slightly broader spectrum and a maximum displaced to 1640 nm. We suggest the residual absorption is an equilibrium mixture of eam− and a metal–electron species. The initial decay of eam− is suppressed by scavenging ND2 and/or ND− radicals with dissolved D2 (1 atm) or NaBH4. Evidence is also obtained for the reaction ND− + D2 → eam−. It is estimated that k(eam− + ND2) and k(BH4− + ND2) = 2.5 × 1010 and 7 × 107 M−l s−1, respectively. Measurements of the initial yield in NH3 and ND3 give [Formula: see text]and 3.6 ± 0.4 molecules/100 eV, respectively.