Effect of confinement on the behavior of superhalogen and superalkali

Abstract

Superalkalis (SA) are excellent reducing agents due to their lower ionization energies than alkalis and alkaline earth metals. On the other hand, superhalogens(SH) behave as powerful oxidizing agents because of their high electron affinity(EA) than that of Cl which has the highest electron affinity in the periodic table. In this article we have shown that these properties of superhalogen/superalkali get changed in a confined environment created by fullerenes cages with different sizes. It has been observed that while the electron affinity of superhalogen decreases, ionization energies(IE) of superalkali increases. Steric effect is predominant between host and guest in smaller fullerenes whereas van der Waals interaction gradually increases in bigger fullerenes.