Highly Sensitive Method for Detecting Ion Pairs in Aqueous Solution Developed

Scientists detected a very specialized type of electron transfer in an aqueous salt solution. ' 036/2017 from Feb 21, 2017 Scientists of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Heidelberg, and the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague have empirically detected a very specialized type of electron transfer in an aqueous salt solution, one which had only been predicted theoretically up to now. The scientists were successful in acquiring empirical evidence for what is referred to as electron-transfer-mediated decay (ETMD). 'ETMD is a decay channel that becomes operative when a hole in the backbone of a molecule is filled by an electron from a neighboring molecule. The energy released by this process is then utilized for ionization of this or an additional neighboring molecule,' explains Prof. Emad Flear Aziz from Freie Universität Berlin. Based on these results, they now expect to have an extremely sensitive method for detecting ion pairs in solutions. The findings of the study were part of the doctoral thesis of Isaak Unger at the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin, which was supervised by Emad Flear Aziz.