Watching Na atoms solvate into (Na+,e-) contact pairs: untangling the ultrafast charge-transfer-to-solvent dynamics of Na- in tetrahydrofuran (THF).

With the large dye molecules employed in typical studies of solvation dynamics, it is often difficult to separate the intramolecular relaxation of the dye from the relaxation associated with dynamic solvation. One way to avoid this difficulty is to study solvation dynamics using an atom as the solvation probe; because atoms have only electronic degrees of freedom, all of the observed spectroscopic dynamics must result from motions of the solvent. In this paper, we use ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy to investigate the solvation dynamics of newly created sodium atoms that are formed following the charge transfer to solvent (CTTS) ejection of an electron from sodium anions (sodide) in liquid tetrahydrofuran (THF). Because the absorption spectra of the sodide reactant, the sodium atom, and the solvated electron products overlap, we first examined the dynamics of the ejected CTTS electron in the infrared to build a detailed model of the CTTS process that allowed us to subtract the spectroscopic contributions of the sodide bleach and the solvated electron and cleanly reveal the spectroscopy of the solvated atom. We find that the neutral sodium species created following CTTS excitation of sodide initially absorbs near 590 nm, the position of the gas-phase sodium D-line, suggesting that it only weakly interacts with the surrounding solvent. We then see a fast solvation process that causes a red-shift of the sodium atom's spectrum in approximately 230 fs, a time scale that matches well with the results of MD simulations of solvation dynamics in liquid THF. After the fast solvation is complete, the neutral sodium atoms undergo a chemical reaction that takes place in approximately 740 fs, as indicated by the observation of an isosbestic point and the creation of a species with a new spectrum. The spectrum of the species created after the reaction then red-shifts on a approximately 10-ps time scale to become the equilibrium spectrum of the THF-solvated sodium atom, which is known from radiation chemistry experiments to absorb near approximately 900 nm. There has been considerable debate as to whether this 900-nm absorbing species is better thought of as a solvated atom or a sodium cation:solvated electron contact pair, (Na+,e-). The fact that we observe the initially created neutral Na atom undergoing a chemical reaction to ultimately become the 900-nm absorbing species suggests that it is better assigned as (Na+,e-). The approximately 10-ps solvation time we observe for this species is an order of magnitude slower than any other solvation process previously observed in liquid THF, suggesting that this species interacts differently with the solvent than the large molecules that are typically used as solvation probes. Together, all of the results allow us to build the most detailed picture to date of the CTTS process of Na- in THF as well as to directly observe the solvation dynamics associated with single sodium atoms in solution.