The correlation-bound anion of p-chloroaniline

The p-chloroaniline anion was generated by Rydberg electron transfer and studied via velocity-map imaging anion photoelectron spectroscopy. The vertical detachment energy (VDE) of the p-chloroaniline anion was measured to be 6.6 meV. This value is in accord with the VDE of 10 meV calculated by Skurski and co-workers. They found the binding of the excess electron in the p-chloroaniline anion to be due almost entirely to electron correlation effects, with only a small contribution from the long-range dipole potential. As such, the p-chloroaniline anion is the first essentially correlation-bound anion to be observed experimentally.