Adiabaticity, electron-transfer

Modem electron transfer tlieory has its conceptual origins in activated complex tlieory, and in tlieories of nonradiative decay. The analysis by Marcus in tire 1950s provided quantitative connections between the solvent characteristics and tire key parameters controlling tire rate of ET. The Marcus tlieory predicts an adiabatic bimolecular ET rate as... 

In many instances tire adiabatic ET rate expression overestimates tire rate by a considerable amount. In some circumstances simply fonning tire tire activated state geometry in tire encounter complex does not lead to ET. This situation arises when tire donor and acceptor groups are very weakly coupled electronically, and tire reaction is said to be nonadiabatic. As tire geometry of tire system fluctuates, tire species do not move on tire lowest potential energy surface from reactants to products. That is, fluctuations into activated complex geometries can occur millions of times prior to a productive electron transfer event. 

Wynne K and Hochstrasser R M 1999 Coherence and adiabaticity in ultrafast electron transfer Adv. Chem. Phys. 107 (Electron transfer from isolated molecules to biomolecules) part 2, 263-309... 

Figure 6. Diabatic and corresponding adiabatic potential energy along a relevant reaction coordinate for normal electron transfer...

The height of the potential barrier is lower than that for nonadiabatic reactions and depends on the interaction between the acceptor and the metal. However, at not too large values of the effective eiectrochemical Landau-Zener parameter the difference in the activation barriers is insignihcant. Taking into account the fact that the effective eiectron transmission coefficient is 1 here, one concludes that the rate of the adiabatic outer-sphere electron transfer reaction is practically independent of the electronic properties of the metal electrode. 

The total Hamiltonian is the sum of the two terms H = H + //osc- The way in which the rate constant is obtained from this Hamiltonian depends on whether the reaction is adiabatic or nonadiabatic, concepts that are explained in Fig. 2.2, which shows a simplified, one-dimensional potential energy surface for the reaction. In the absence of an electronic interaction between the reactant and the metal (i.e., all Vk = 0), there are two parabolic surfaces one for the initial state labeled A, and one for the final state B. In the presence of an electronic interaction, the two surfaces split at their intersection point. When a thermal fluctuation takes the system to the intersection, electron transfer can occur in this case, the system follows the path... 

Figure 2.2 Adiabatic and non-adiabatic electron transfer (schematic). The splitting at the intersection has been exaggerated.

In typical outer sphere electron transfer on metal electrodes, A is in the weakly adiabatic region and thus sufficiently large to ensure adiabaticity, but too small to lead to a noticeable reduction of the activation energy. In this case, the rate is determined by solvent reorganization, and is independent of the nature of the metal [Iwasita et al., 1985 Santos et al., 1986]. 

KoperMTM, Voth GA. 1998. A theory for adiabatic bond breaking electron transfer reactions at metal electrodes. Chem Phys Lett 282 100-106. 

Schmickler W. 1986. A theory of adiabatic electron transfer reactions. J Electroanal Chem 204 31-43. 

Ab initio thermodynamics, 129-155 Acetaldehyde oxidation, 196-197, 624 Acetic acid, 192-198, 394-395 Active sites in electrocatalysis, 93-124, 159-198, 237,250,253 Adiabatic and non-adiabatic electron transfer, 34... 

We have established an important principle in electron transfer theory that is not present in conventional one-dimensional models. The reaction coordinate is always localizing and corresponds to coordinate Aj. The coordinate X2 corresponds to the direction in which the matrix element between ground and excited states is switched on. If this coordinate has zero length then the branching space becomes one dimensional and an adiabatic reaction path does not exist. We now consider two examples. 

Unlike the simplest outer-sphere electron transfer reactions where the electrons are the only quantum subsystem and only two types of transitions are possible (adiabatic and nonadiabatic ones), the situation for proton transfer reactions is more complicated. Three types of transitions may be considered here5 ... 

Reactions involving transfer of atoms and atomic groups represent a more complicated theoretical problem since they are often partially or entirely adiabatic and, in addition, a number of effects which are not very important in electron transfer reactions must be considered. These effects are ... 

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