# Electron-Impact Resonances of Anthracene in the Presence of Methanol: Does the Solvent Identity Matter?

## TL;DR

This study investigates how methanol affects electron impact resonances in anthracene, finding that solvent identity mainly influences stabilization and decay mechanisms but not the core resonance dynamics.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is extending electron impact resonance studies from water to methanol solvents, revealing solvent-specific effects on resonance stabilization and decay.

## Key findings

- Methanol's solvent identity affects electron affinity and resonance energy but not the core resonance dynamics of anthracene.
- At a critical cluster size, the lowest resonance becomes a bound state, shifting the electron loss mechanism.
- Solvent impacts stabilization, decay mechanism, and critical cluster size but not anthracene's inherent resonance dynamics.

## Abstract

Electron impact resonances of neutral molecules can be
probed using
2D photoelectron spectroscopy of their radical anions, with a core
advantage of being able to introduce solvent molecules in a systematic
manner through clustering. This approach has been employed previously
to probe the effect of water molecules on the resonances of anthracene.
Here, we extend this study to probe the resonances of anthracene in
the presence of methanol. We find that the nature of the solvent has
little impact on the resonances from the perspective of the anion.
Only the electron affinity is observed to increase, which corresponds
to a concomitant decrease in resonance energy as viewed from a free
electron impacting the anthracene-methanol cluster. For a critical
cluster size, n
critical, the lowest resonance
becomes a bound state and the mechanism for electron loss switches
from a prompt autodetachment process to a statistical thermionic emission
process. We posit that the identity of a general solvent molecule
only impacts the stabilization of the resonances of anthracene, which
in turn affects the overall decay mechanism and n
critical, but the inherent resonance dynamics of anthracene
is unaffected by the solvent.