The radical anions and the electron affinities of perfluorinated benzene, naphthalene and anthracene

Abstract

Although benzene and naphthalene do not have electron affinities in the conventional sense, perfluorobenzene and perfluoronaphthalene have nonzero electron affinities. Theoretical methods extensively calibrated with experiment for the prediction of electron affinities (EAs) predict the EAs of perfluorobenzene, perfluoronaphthalene and perfluoroanthracene as 0.69, 1.02 and 1.84 eV, respectively. A rough estimate of 2.39 eV is made for the electron affinity of perfluorotetracene. Thus the perfluoro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are predicted to be effective electron acceptors.