Electric field impact on solvated electron reactions: Trapping of randomlywalking electron

The impact of an external electric field on electron seizure by neutral tra ps was studied within the Torrey model of a solvated electron random walk. The step length of the random motion, determined by the free diffusion of a temporarily escaped electron, increases with electric field strength, chan ging the reaction mechanism from a diffusional to a hopping one. The field dependence of the rate of the hopping reaction essentially differs from tha t obtained for diffusional trapping. Such a difference may serve for experi mental discrimination between the hopping and diffusional mechanisms of thi s reaction. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)50837-4] .