Charge transfer many electron theory

The many-electron theory of charge transfer discussed here possesses the versatility needed in order to treat different mechanisms within the same quantum-mechanical framework. However, it remains for future work to decide how successful the present formalism will be in providing a comprehensive many-electron theory of surface charge transfer. 

Another fundamental deficiency in the 1-electron theory is its failure to account for the significant role played by electron-electron interaction in the charge-transfer process. An approximate solution to this difficult many-electron problem appeared towards the end of the sixties (Edwards and Newns 1967, Grimley 1967, Newns 1969), which tackled it by adopting a modified version of the work of Anderson (1961) on dilute magnetic impurities... 

Nevertheless, the one-electron approach does have its deHciencies, and we believe that a major theoretical effort must now be devoted to improving on it. This is not only in order to obtain better quantitative results but, perhaps more importantly, to develop a framework which can encompass all types of charge-transfer processes, including Auger and quasi-resonant ones. To do so is likely to require the use of many-electron multi-configurational wavefunctions. There have been some attempts along these lines and we have indicated, in detail, how such a theory might be developed. The few many-electron calculations which have been made do differ qualitatively from the one-electron results for the same systems and, clearly, further calculations on other systems are required. 

There have been many attempts to relate bulk electronic properties of semiconductor oxides with their catalytic activity. The electronic theory of catalysis of metal oxides developed by Hauffe (1966), Wolkenstein (1960) and others (Krylov, 1970) is base d on the idea that chemisorption of gases like CO and N2O on semiconductor oxides is associated with electron-transfer, which results in a change in the electron transport properties of the solid oxide. For example, during CO oxidation on ZnO a correlation between change in charge-carrier concentration and reaction rate has been found (Cohn Prater, 1966). 

The theoretical description of photochemistry is historically based on the diabatic representation, where the diabatic models have been given the generic label desorption induced by electronic transitions (DIET) [91]. Such theories were originally developed by Menzel, Gomer and Redhead (MGR) [92,93] for repulsive excited states and later generalized to attractive excited states by Antoniewicz [94]. There are many mechanisms by which photons can induce photochemistry/desorption direct optical excitation of the adsorbate, direct optical excitation of the metal-adsorbate complex (i.e., via a charge-transfer band) or indirectly via substrate mediated excitation (e-h pairs). The differences in these mechanisms lie principally in how localized the relevant electron and hole created by the light are on the adsorbate. 

Entry no. 11 of Table 15 illustrates many of the difficulties involved in judging the feasibility of a slow electron-transfer step, in this case further complicated by the assumption that it takes place within a pre-formed charge-transfer complex (99). Taking for granted that Marcus theory can be applied to such a... 

Because of the inadequacies of QED a fundamental theory of electrode processes is still lacking. The working theories are exclusively phenomenological and formulated entirely in terms of ionic distributions in the vicinity of electrode interfaces. An early, incomplete attempt [54] to develop a quantum mechanical theory of electrolysis based on electron tunnelling, is still invoked and extensively misunderstood as the basis of charge-transfer. It is clear from too many superficial statements about the nature of electrons that the symbol e is considered sufficient to summarize their important function. The size, spin and mass of the electron never feature in the dynamics of electrochemistry. 

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