The mobilities of electrons, holes and molecular ions in liquid cyclohexane and trans-decalin

The properties of the primary charge carriers formed on ionization of saturated hydrocarbon liquids have been found to display a marked sensitivity to the structure of the individual molecules of the medium. Thus for excess electrons the mobility has been shown to be dramatically influenced by the degree of sphericity of the molecules. For electron holes (solvent radical cations) a high mobility has been observed to date only in liquids for which the molecules contain a C6 membered ring system. In the present paper we compare and contrast the transport properties of electrons and holes in two liquids, cyclohexane and trans-decalin, for which both primary charge carriers display mobilities considerably higher than those found for solute molecular ions.