Chemical reactions molecular level

Studies of surfaces and surface properties can be traced to the early 1800s [1]. Processes that involved surfaces and surface chemistry, such as heterogeneous catalysis and Daguerre photography, were first discovered at that time. Since then, there has been a continual interest in catalysis, corrosion and other chemical reactions that involve surfaces. The modem era of surface science began in the late 1950s, when instmmentation that could be used to investigate surface processes on the molecular level started to become available. 

Conservation laws at a microscopic level of molecular interactions play an important role. In particular, energy as a conserved variable plays a central role in statistical mechanics. Another important concept for equilibrium systems is the law of detailed balance. Molecular motion can be viewed as a sequence of collisions, each of which is akin to a reaction. Most often it is the momentum, energy and angrilar momentum of each of the constituents that is changed during a collision if the molecular structure is altered, one has a chemical reaction. The law of detailed balance implies that, in equilibrium, the number of each reaction in the forward direction is the same as that in the reverse direction i.e. each microscopic reaction is in equilibrium. This is a consequence of the time reversal syimnetry of mechanics. 

Optical metiiods, in both bulb and beam expermrents, have been employed to detemiine tlie relative populations of individual internal quantum states of products of chemical reactions. Most connnonly, such methods employ a transition to an excited electronic, rather than vibrational, level of tlie molecule. Molecular electronic transitions occur in the visible and ultraviolet, and detection of emission in these spectral regions can be accomplished much more sensitively than in the infrared, where vibrational transitions occur. In addition to their use in the study of collisional reaction dynamics, laser spectroscopic methods have been widely applied for the measurement of temperature and species concentrations in many different kinds of reaction media, including combustion media [31] and atmospheric chemistry [32]. 

Chemical reaction dynamics is an attempt to understand chemical reactions at tire level of individual quantum states. Much work has been done on isolated molecules in molecular beams, but it is unlikely tliat tliis infonnation can be used to understand condensed phase chemistry at tire same level [8]. In a batli, tire reacting solute s potential energy surface is altered by botli dynamic and static effects. The static effect is characterized by a potential of mean force. The dynamical effects are characterized by tire force-correlation fimction or tire frequency-dependent friction [8]. 

The Car-Parrinello quantum molecular dynamics technique, introduced by Car and Parrinello in 1985 [1], has been applied to a variety of problems, mainly in physics. The apparent efficiency of the technique, and the fact that it combines a description at the quantum mechanical level with explicit molecular dynamics, suggests that this technique might be ideally suited to study chemical reactions. The bond breaking and formation phenomena characteristic of chemical reactions require a quantum mechanical description, and these phenomena inherently involve molecular dynamics. In 1994 it was shown for the first time that this technique may indeed be applied efficiently to the study of, in that particular application catalytic, chemical reactions [2]. We will discuss the results from this and related studies we have performed. 

Life forms are based on coded chemicals that, in the right environment, can reproduce themselves and make other chemicals needed to break down and utilize food. Within an organism, these biochemical reactions constitute nonnal metabolism. Biotechnology is the manipulation of these biochemical reactions at either the cellular or the molecular level. 

Redox reactions constitute the third of the three major classes of chemical reactions treated here. The variety of these reactions is remarkable. Many common reactions, such as combustion, corrosion, photosynthesis, the metabolism of food, and the extraction of metals from their ores, appear to be completely different. However, when we consider these changes at the molecular level with a chemist s eye, we can see that they are all examples of a single type of process. 

We are now ready to build a model of how chemical reactions take place at the molecular level. Specifically, our model must account for the temperature dependence of rate constants, as expressed by the Arrhenius equation it should also reveal the significance of the Arrhenius parameters A and Ea. Reactions in the gas phase are conceptually simpler than those in solution, and so we begin with them. 

From an understanding of how atoms join to make molecules, chemists can explain why two compounds that seem so similar have profoundly different reactivity patterns. We describe how atoms link together in Chapters 9 and lO. Meanwhile, remember that chemists try to visualize chemical reactions at the molecular level. Contemporary chemists also manipulate individual atoms to make elaborate structures, as described in our Box. 

A mass spectrometer provides an example of a molecular beam, in this case a beam of molecular ions. Molecular beams are used in many studies of fundamental chemical interactions. In a high vacuum, a molecular beam allows chemists to study the reactions that take place through specifically designed types of collisions. For example, a crossed-beam experiment involves the intersection of two molecular beams of two different substances. The types of substances, molecular speeds, and orientations of the beams can be changed systematically to give detailed information about how chemical reactions occur at the molecular level. Chemists also have learned how to create molecular beams in which the molecules have very little energy of motion. These isolated, low-energy molecules are ideal for studies of fundamental molecular properties. 

The story of the ozone hole illustrates how important it is to learn the molecular details of chemical reactions. Some chemists use information about how reactions occur to design and synthesize useful new compounds. Others explore how to modify reaction conditions to minimize the cost of producing industrial chemicals. This chapter explores how chemical reactions occur at the molecular level. We show how to describe a reaction from the molecular perspective, introduce the basic principles that govern these processes, and describe some experimental methods used to study chemical reactions. 

In a termolecular reaction, three chemical species collide simultaneously. Termolecular reactions are rare because they require a collision of three species at the same time and in exactly the right orientation to form products. The odds against such a simultaneous three-body collision are high. Instead, processes involving three species usually occur in two-step sequences. In the first step, two molecules collide and form a collision complex. In a second step, a third molecule collides with the complex before it breaks apart. Most chemical reactions, including all those introduced in this book, can be described at the molecular level as sequences of bimolecular and unimolecular elementary reactions. 

Mechanism I illustrates an important requirement for reaction mechanisms. Because a mechanism is a summary of events at the molecular level, a mechanism must lead to the correct stoichiometry to be an accurate description of the chemical reaction. The sum of the steps of a mechanism must give the balanced stoichiometric equation for the overall chemical reaction. If it does not, the proposed mechanism must be discarded. In Mechanism I, the net result of two sequential elementary reactions is the observed reaction stoichiometry. 

For a better understanding of the effect of changing concentrations on the rate of a chemical reaction, it helps to visualize the reaction at the molecular level. In this one-step bimolecular reaction, a collision between molecules that are in the proper orientation leads to the transfer of an oxygen atom from O3 to NO. As with the formation of N2 O4, the rate of this bimolecular reaction is proportional to the number of collisions between O3 and NO. The more such collisions there are, the faster the reaction occurs. 

The problem asks for a qualitative analysis of a chemical equilibrium. We must visualize what takes place at the molecular level, describe the system in words, draw pictures that summarize the reactions, and then use the ideas developed for the NO2 /N2 O4 reaction to write an expression for the equilibrium constant. 

Aithough these reactions iook different, they all involve the same chemical process an acid collides with a base and transfers H. Figure 17-1 illustrates this process at the molecular level. 

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