Reduction of earth alkaline metal salts in THF solution studied by picosecond pulse radiolysis

Picosecond pulse radiolysis of tetrahydrofuran (THF) solutions containing earth alkaline metal salt, M(II)(ClO4)2, at different concentrations are performed using two different supercontinua as probe pulse, one covering the visible and another the near-infrared (NIR) down to the visible. Two types of line scan detectors are used to record the absorption spectra in the range from 400 to 1500 nm. Because of the strong overlap between the spectra of the absorbing species in the present wavelength range, global matrices were built for each M(II) system, by delay-wise binding the matrix for pure THF with the available matrices for this cation. The number of absorbers was assessed by Singular Value Decomposition of the global matrix, and a MCR-ALS analysis with the corresponding number of species was performed. The analysis of the results show clearly that solvated electron reacts with the earth alkaline metal molecule and the product has an optical absorption band very different than that of solvated electron in pure THF. So, contrarily to the case of solution containing free Na(+), in the presence of Mg(II), Ca(II) and Sr(II) the observed absorption band is not only blueshifted, but its shape is also drastically changed. In fact with Na(+) solvated electron forms a tight-contact pair but with earth alkaline metal cation solvated electron is scavenged by the undissociated molecule M(II)(ClO4)2. In order to determine the structure of the absorbing species observed after the electron pulse, Monte Carlo/DFT simulations were performed in the case of Mg(II), based on a classical Monte Carlo code and DFT/PCM calculation of the solute. The UV-visible spectrum of the solute is calculated with the help of the TDDFT method. The calculated spectrum is close to the experimental one. It is due to two species, a contact pair and an anion.