Effect of an Electric Field on Electron Attachment to SF6 in Liquid Ethane and Propane

The effect of an external electric field, E, on the electron attachment rate constant, ke, of SF6 was studied by a pulsed-conductivity technique in liquid ethane and propane at temperatures ranging from 133-176 K and 156-216 K, respectively. At constant temperature, ke was independent of E at fields less than Ec , the critical field above which the mobility becomes field-dependent, but at E> Ec, ke increased proportionally with De, the diffusion coefficient of the electron. Application of diffusion-controlled reaction theory to the ke - De dependence yielded an effective encounter radius of 14.5 Å for the e--SF6 reaction pair in both liquids. This encounter radius is discussed in terms of the electron-SF6 interaction energy and models of electron transport and attachment in low-mobility liquids.