33 



the icebergs. 



ALLEN: What is the difference in ammonia? 



MAGEE: The steady-state concentration of electrons and NH3 positive ions, 

 solvated or not, is just zero. You don't have ionization in ammonia. 



ALLEN: We irradiated ammonia. In fact, the result has been published (11). 

 There was no blue color. Nothing happened. 



PLATZMAN: During irradiation? 



ALLEN: Yes, during irradiation. If we had obtained color you would have 

 seen a paper in the journal, but since we didn't get any color there was just a 

 little note. 



BURTON: An important question was asked and Dr. Onsager was answering 

 it. Essentially it was this: What is the ion product constant in ammonia? 



ONSAGER: I don't think anybody knows. 



BURTON: Is it lower than that of water? 



ONSAGER: Definitely. I think ammonia has been produced with a conduc- 

 tivity of about 0.01 that of water. 



BURTON: Let us consider some relatively simple processes in pure am- 

 monia. Ionization will give the reaction 



NH3 -*u— > NH 3 + + e" 



The important question revolves around the fate of the electron. Does it re- 

 combine with the parent ion? Is it captured by another NH3+ ion? Or is it cap- 

 tured by the liquid to give a trapped electron. If the latter process makes a 

 significant contribution, the solution should become blue. Absence of a blue 

 color in Dr. Allen's experiments certainly shows that no significant steady-state 

 concentration of solvated electrons was produced. However, the explanation of 

 such absence is not clear from the data at hand. The important question re- 

 mains whether color (and therefore electron solvation and electron movement 

 away from the parent ion) would have been detected at higher radiation intensi- 

 ties . 



PLATZMAN: Did you look at it during the irradiation? 



ALLEN: It is a little hard to say. We had cathode rays going in. However, 

 we had the electrodes set a little back, so that the region right between the elec- 

 trodes was not actually in the path of the beam. There was no rise in conduc- 

 tivity that we could measure during the bombardment. So if these electrons had 

 lasted long enough to diffuse a few millimeters we would have seen them. After 

 the irradiation there was no blue color. We also did this with X rays at 50 r per 

 second, and again there was no change in the conductivity. 



PLATZMAN: There is another way to approach this. Make ammonia out of 

 tritium, take a long tube of it, and see if it is blue. 



ONSAGER: There is another experiment that is germane here. The sodium 

 solutions in ammonia give pronounced photoelectric effects, extending to quite 



