Chemical relaxation rate constants

Fig. 4. Variation of autocorrelation function with changes in the equilibrium constant in the fast reaction limit. A and B have the same diffusion coefficients but different optical (fluorescence) properties. A difference in the fluorescence of A and B serves to indicate the progress of the isomerization reaction the diffusion coefficients of A and B are the same. The characteristic chemical reaction time is in the range of 10 4-10-5 s, depending on the value of the chemical relaxation rate that for diffusion is 0.025 s. For this calculation parameter values are the same as those for Figure 3 except that DA = Z)B = lO"7 cm2 s-1 and QA = 0.1 and <9B = 1.0. The relation of CB/C0 to the different curves is as in Figure 3. 

The exchange of the coordinated aqua ligand of the W(IV) aqua oxo species was qualitatively studied by NMR line-broadening as a function of temperature based on Eq. (26), where the transverse relaxation time of the bound oxygen-17 nucleus is given by 1/T2b. The l/T2Qb represents the quadrupolar relaxation rate and kmi the chemical exchange rate constant... 

Quantitative analysis of exchange spectra directly provides data about the chemical exchange and the cross-relaxation rates. Whereas the chemical exchange rate constants are used directly, the cross-relaxation rates are usually processed further for determination of interproton distances and correlation times. 

Another consideration in choosing a kinetic method is the objective of one s experiments. For example, if chemical kinetics rate constants are to be measured, most batch and flow techniques would be unsatisfactory since they primarily measure transport- and diffusion-controlled processes, and apparent rate laws and rate coefficients are determined. Instead, one should employ a fast kinetic method such as pressure-jump relaxation, electric field pulse, or stopped flow (Chapter 4). 

Other evidence that would strongly suggest that the rate constants measured by p-jump relaxation are indeed chemical kinetics rate constants was given in the work of Ikeda et al. (1981). In this study, the kinetics of hydrolysis of zeolite 4A surface using p-jump relaxation and conductivity detection was determined. The r 1 could be expressed as... 

As stated in Section III.8, the derivation of kinetic equations for non-equilibrium reactions requires knowledge of microscopic rate constants both for elementary chemical reactions and for relaxation processes. The relaxation rate constants must be allowed for explicitly only for processes occurring at a rate lower than or comparable with the reaction rates, i.e. for relaxations that can be considered to be incomplete in microscopic conversions (see III.8). 

The n-site Bloch-McConnell equations describe the evolution of nuclear spin magnetization in the laboratory or rotating frames of reference for molecules subject to chemical or conformational interconversions between n species with distinct NMR chemical shifts. Trott and Palmer used perturbation theory to approximate the largest eigenvalue of the Bloch-McConnell equations and obtain analytical expressions for the rotating-frame relaxation rate constant and for the laboratory frame resonance frequency and transverse relaxation rate constant. The perturbation treatment is valid whenever the population of one site is dominant. The new results are generally applicable to investigations of kinetic processes by NMR spectroscopy. 

As a final point, it should again be emphasized that many of the quantities that are measured experimentally, such as relaxation rates, coherences and time-dependent spectral features, are complementary to the thennal rate constant. Their infomiation content in temis of the underlying microscopic interactions may only be indirectly related to the value of the rate constant. A better theoretical link is clearly needed between experimentally measured properties and the connnon set of microscopic interactions, if any, that also affect the more traditional solution phase chemical kinetics. 

Transient, or time-resolved, techniques measure tire response of a substance after a rapid perturbation. A swift kick can be provided by any means tliat suddenly moves tire system away from equilibrium—a change in reactant concentration, for instance, or tire photodissociation of a chemical bond. Kinetic properties such as rate constants and amplitudes of chemical reactions or transfonnations of physical state taking place in a material are tlien detennined by measuring tire time course of relaxation to some, possibly new, equilibrium state. Detennining how tire kinetic rate constants vary witli temperature can further yield infonnation about tire tliennodynamic properties (activation entlialpies and entropies) of transition states, tire exceedingly ephemeral species tliat he between reactants, intennediates and products in a chemical reaction. 

The main problem of elementary chemical reaction dynamics is to find the rate constant of the transition in the reaction complex interacting with its environment. This problem, in principle, is close to the general problem of statistical mechanics of irreversible processes (see, e.g., Blum [1981], Kubo et al. [1985]) about the relaxation of initially nonequilibrium state of a particle in the presence of a reservoir (heat bath). If the particle is coupled to the reservoir weakly enough, then the properties of the latter are fully determined by the spectral characteristics of its susceptibility coefficients. 

Fig. 48. Reduced relaxation rates r 1,2/Q3 for stars with Gaussian chain conformation. The insert represents the rates directly. Note that T1 approaches a constant at lower Q. The broken lines give the effective reduced relaxation rates for various contrast conditions. Dashed line shell contrast dashed-dotted line core contrast dotted line average contrast. (Reprinted with permission from [154]. Copyright 1990 American Chemical Society, Washington)...

As we shall see, all relaxation rates are expressed as linear combinations of spectral densities. We shall retain the two relaxation mechanisms which are involved in the present study the dipolar interaction and the so-called chemical shift anisotropy (csa) which can be important for carbon-13 relaxation. We shall disregard all other mechanisms because it is very likely that they will not affect carbon-13 relaxation. Let us denote by 1 the inverse of Tt. Rt governs the recovery of the longitudinal component of polarization, Iz, and, of course, the usual nuclear magnetization which is simply the nuclear polarization times the gyromagnetic constant A. The relevant evolution equation is one of the famous Bloch equations,1 valid, in principle, for a single spin but which, in many cases, can be used as a first approximation. 

A number of other spectroscopies provide information that is related to molecular structure, such as coordination symmetry, electronic splitting, and/or the nature and number of chemical functional groups in the species. This information can be used to develop models for the molecular structure of the system under study, and ultimately to determine the forces acting on the atoms in a molecule for any arbitrary displacement of the nuclei. According to the energy of the particles used for excitation (photons, electrons, neutrons, etc.), different parts of a molecule will interact, and different structural information will be obtained. Depending on the relaxation process, each method has a characteristic time scale over which the structural information is averaged. Especially for NMR, the relaxation rate may often be slower than the rate constant of a reaction under study. 

A possible explanation for the preference of living systems for the L (levorotatory) over the D (dextrorotatory) optical isomer may be associated with the stereoselective properties of layered minerals. To test this hypothesis, the rates of L- and D-histidine intercalation into HT layered compound was investigated using the pressure-jump relaxation technique (21). The rate constants and interlayer spacing based on this investigation are summarized in Table V. As shown the slightly enhanced rate for L-histidine suggests that relative chemical reactivity may be associated with natural selection of the L-form of amino acids in nature. 

The DD-CSA cross-correlated relaxation, namely that between 13C-1H dipole and 31P-CSA, can also be used to determine backbone a and C angles in RNA [65]. The experiment requires oligonucleotides that are 13C-labeled in the sugar moiety. First, 1H-coupled, / - DQ//Q-II CP spectra are measured. DQ and ZQ spectra are obtained by linear combinations of four subspectra recorded for each q-increment. Then, the cross-relaxation rates are calculated from the peak intensity ratios of the doublets in the DQ and ZQ spectra. The observed cross-correlation rates depend on the relative orientations of CH dipoles with respect to the components of the 31P chemical shift tensor. As the components of the 31P chemical shift tensor in RNA are not known, the barium salt of diethyl phosphate was used as a model compound with the principal components values of -76 ppm, -16 ppm and 103 ppm, respectively [106]. Since the measured cross-correlation rates are a function of the angles / and e as well, these angles need to be determined independently using 3/(H, P) and 3/(C, P) coupling constants. 

The method relies on the measurement of cross-correlated relaxation rates in a constant time period such that the cross-correlated relaxation rate evolves during a fixed time r. In order to resolve the cross-correlated relaxation rate, however, the couplings need to evolve during an evolution time, e.g. tt. The first pulse sequence published for the measurement of the cross-correlated relaxation rate between the HNn and the Ca j,Ha i vector relied on an HN(CO)CA experiment, in which the Ca chemical shift evolution period was replaced by evolution of 15N,13C double and zero quantum coherences (Fig. 7.20). 

As an example of the measurement of cross-correlated relaxation between CSA and dipolar couplings, we choose the J-resolved constant time experiment [30] (Fig. 7.26 a) that measures the cross-correlated relaxation of 1H,13C-dipolar coupling and 31P-chemical shift anisotropy to determine the phosphodiester backbone angles a and in RNA. Since 31P is not bound to NMR-active nuclei, NOE information for the backbone of RNA is sparse, and vicinal scalar coupling constants cannot be exploited. The cross-correlated relaxation rates can be obtained from the relative scaling (shown schematically in Fig. 7.19d) of the two submultiplet intensities derived from an H-coupled constant time spectrum of 13C,31P double- and zero-quantum coherence [DQC (double-quantum coherence) and ZQC (zero-quantum coherence), respectively]. These traces are shown in Fig. 7.26c. The desired cross-correlated relaxation rate can be extracted from the intensities of the cross peaks according to ... 

Chemists pay much less attention to the NMR relaxation rates than to the coupling constants and chemical shifts. From the point of view of the NMR spectroscopist, however, the relaxation characteristics are far more basic, and may mean the difference between the observation or not of a signal. For the quadrupolar nucleides such as 14N the relaxation characteristics are dominated by the quadrupole relaxation. This is shown by the absence of any nuclear Overhauser effect for the 14N ammonium ion despite its high symmetry, which ensures that the quadrupole relaxation is minimized. Relaxation properties are governed by motional characteristics normally represented by a correlation time, or several translational, overall rotational and internal rotational, and thus are very different for solids, liquids and solutions. 

With the availability of perturbation techniques for measuring the rates of rapid reactions (Sec. 3.4), the subject of relaxation kinetics — rates of reaction near to chemical equilibrium — has become important in the study of chemical reactions.Briefly, a chemical system at equilibrium is perturbed, for example, by a change in the temperature of the solution. The rate at which the new equilibrium position is attained is a measure of the values of the rate constants linking the equilibrium (or equilibria in a multistep process) and is controlled by these values. 

It can be seen that, in all cases, relaxation rates are directly proportional to (Aa). Because Aa reflects the anisotropy of the shielding tensor and because the chemical shift originates from the shielding effect, the terminology Chemical Shift Anisotropy is used for denoting this relaxation mechanism. Dispersion may be disconcerting because of the presence of Bq (proportional to cOq) in the numerator of and R2 (Eq. (49)). Imagine that molecular reorientation is sufficiently slow so that coo 1 for all considered values of coo from (49), it can be seen that R is constant whereas R2 increases when Bq increases, a somewhat unusual behavior. 

I/T2A is the relaxation rate of bulk water in absence of exchange, AmM is the chemical shift difference (in rad s ) between bound and bulk water in absence of exchange, and tm is the life time of a water molecule in the first coordination shell of the metal ion M. The reciprocal of tm is the exchange rate constant for the exchange of a water molecule. The direct influence of the paramagnetic center on outer sphere molecules is included in a term I/T20S-... 

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