Electron localization in liquid hydrocarbons: The Anderson model

Anderson's model is applied for initial localization in liquid hydrocarbons (particularly n-alkanes) in conjunction with certain results of scaling theory. Medium connectivity is calculated using experimental X-ray data on liquid structure, from which critical disorder (W/V)c is computed, where W is diagonal disorder and V is the transfer energy. Actual W prevailing in the liquid is computed from anisotropic molecular polarizability. V is estimated by a heuristic procedure originating in scaling theory. These values are used to compute the percentage of initially delocalized states available for low-energy electrons in alkane liquids. This percentage decreases monotonically from methane (100%) to n-pentane and beyond (0%). In ethane and propane, the initial states are highly delocalized (97.6% and 83.9%, respectively). Subsequent trapping changes the situation as evidenced in mobility studies. Butane presents a partially, intermediate delocalized case (53.2%).