Electron transfer, free activation energy

As with the Marcus-Hush model of outer-sphere electron transfers, the activation free energy, AG, is a quadratic function of the free energy of the reaction, AG°, as depicted by equation (7), where the intrinsic barrier free energy (equation 8) is the sum of two contributions. One involves the solvent reorganization free energy, 2q, as in the Marcus-Hush model of outer-sphere electron transfer. The other, which represents the contribution of bond breaking, is one-fourth of the bond dissociation energy (BDE). This approach is... 

With Eq. 4.6 we can formulate the free-activation-energy dependence of the rate constant for electron-transfer reactions... 

Within this framework, by considering the physical situation of the electrode double layer, the free energy of activation of an electron transfer reaction can be identified with the reorganization energy of the solvation sheath around the ion. This idea will be carried through in detail for the simple case of the strongly solvated... 

Similarly, changes must take place in the outer solvation shell diirmg electron transfer, all of which implies that the solvation shells themselves inliibit electron transfer. This inliibition by the surrounding solvent molecules in the iimer and outer solvation shells can be characterized by an activation free energy AG. ... 

This section contains a brief review of the molecular version of Marcus theory, as developed by Warshel [81]. The free energy surface for an electron transfer reaction is shown schematically in Eigure 1, where R represents the reactants and A, P represents the products D and A , and the reaction coordinate X is the degree of polarization of the solvent. The subscript o for R and P denotes the equilibrium values of R and P, while P is the Eranck-Condon state on the P-surface. The activation free energy, AG, can be calculated from Marcus theory by Eq. (4). This relation is based on the assumption that the free energy is a parabolic function of the polarization coordinate. Eor self-exchange transfer reactions, we need only X to calculate AG, because AG° = 0. Moreover, we can write... 

Use die activated complex theory for explaining clearly how the applied potential affects the rate constant of an electron-transfer reaction. Draw free energy curves and use proper equations for your explanation. 

Equation (34.10) describes the dependence of the activation free energy on the free energy of transition AF for electron transfer between two discrete energy levels (one in the donor, Eq, and one in the acceptor, e ). The quantity AF involves the difference of these electron energies, the solvation free energies of the reaction products, wfi and the initial reactants, wf and the works required to bring the reaction products, w, and the reactants, w,., from infinity to a given interreactant distance 34. 

The expression in Eq. (10) for the exponent in Eq. (9) is quite similar to that for the activation free energy in electron transfer reactions derived by Marcus using the methods of nonequilibrium classical thermodynamics8 ... 

Instead of the quantity given by Eq. (15), the quantity given by Eq. (10) was treated as the activation energy of the process in the earlier papers on the quantum mechanical theory of electron transfer reactions. This difference between the results of the quantum mechanical theory of radiationless transitions and those obtained by the methods of nonequilibrium thermodynamics has also been noted in Ref. 9. The results of the quantum mechanical theory were obtained in the harmonic oscillator model, and Eqs. (9) and (10) are valid only if the vibrations of the oscillators are classical and their frequencies are unchanged in the course of the electron transition (i.e., (o k = w[). It might seem that, in this case, the energy of the transition and the free energy of the transition are equal to each other. However, we have to remember that for the solvent, the oscillators are the effective ones and the parameters of the system Hamiltonian related to the dielectric properties of the medium depend on the temperature. Therefore, the problem of the relationship between the results obtained by the two methods mentioned above deserves to be discussed. 

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