Using pH Value To Control Intermolecular Electronic Decay

摘要

The way in which an ionized, isolated molecule releases its stress depends on the vacancy created. Having lost an outer-valence electron, the molecule changes its geometry to adjust to a new charge distribution. If a deeper, inner-valence electron is removed, the system may also relax through emitting a photon. Ionization of a core electron is usually followed by fast Auger decay. The presence of a chemical environment around the ionized system modifies these relaxation processes. Particularly large changes may occur after ionization from an inner-valence shell when a relaxation pathway much faster than photon emission may become operative, namely intermolecular Coulombic decay (ICD).