Photoelectron spectra of quaternary salts in solution

The ionisation energies, measured by He(I) photoelectron spectroscopy, are reported for I^?, Cl^?, Br^?, CNS^? and NO^?₂ in adiponitrile solution. These energies give a straight line when plotted against the energies of the electron transfer to solvent absorption bands of the ions in acetonitrile solution. The intercept gives the electron affinity of the solvent; for acetonitrile, assumed to be spectroscopically equivalent to adiponitrile, the electron affinity is found to be 1.85 eV; for water it is 1.65 eV. The energies of electron transfers not observable in the UV absorption spectrum of NO^?₂ solutions are estimated from the photoelectron spectra.