Concentration jump experiments relaxation techniques

Whenever a chemical equilibrium is subjected to a perturbation, most commonly a change in temperature, pressure, pH, or other concentrations, the system will start to relax back to a new equilibrium state. The kinetics of this relaxation can be followed. Methods for quickly inducing a perturbation followed by monitoring the relaxation are referred to as jump techniques. Changes in temperature, pH, and pressure can often be done fast enough that reactions with half-lives in the microsecond range can be followed. For example, the equilibrium positions of Bransted acid-base reactions are controlled by the pH, and therefore pH jump experiments are particularly useful with these reactions. 

Shock tubes are of limited utility. A more general approach to the study of reactions which are complete in the range 1 msec-1 nsec is to use fast reaction methods. An equilibrium system is perturbed by an external stimulus applied for a very short time (always less than the half-time for reestablishing equilibrium). A common approach is to effect a temperature jump in the system by a brief burst of heating. If the equilibrium is temperature sensitive the concentration of reactants must readjust by synchronizing an automatic recording technique with the onset or termination of the heating pulse the relaxation to the new equilibrium state can be followed. There are many other stimuli that can be used to perturb the system. These include dilation (pressure jump), electric field (Wien effect), etc. Any method that can perturb the system very rapidly is potentially useful for such an experiment. 

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