Kramers’ theory high friction limit

From these potential energy curves, the reaction rate can be calculated with the aid of Kramers theory. In the limit of a high solvent friction y, the rate is given by Kramers [1940] and Zusman [1980]... 

The second part (sections H and I) is devoted to a detailed discussion of the dynamics of unimolecular reactions in the presence and the absence of a potential barrier. Section H presents a critical examination of the Kramers approach. It is stressed that the expressions of the reaction rates in the low-, intermediate-, and high-friction limits are subjected to restrictive conditions, namely, the high barrier case and the quasi-stationary regime. The dynamics related to one-dimensional diffusion in a bistable potential is analyzed, and the exactness of the time dependence of the reaction rate is emphasized. The essential results of the non-Markovian theory extending the Kramers conclusions are also discussed. The final section investigates in detail the time evolution of an unimolecular reaction in the absence of a potential barrier. The formal treatment makes evident a two-time-scale description of the dynamics. 

In Kramers theory that is based on the Langevin equation with a constant time-independent friction constant, it is found that the rate constant may be written as a product of the result from conventional transition-state theory and a transmission factor. This factor depends on the ratio of the solvent friction (proportional to the solvent viscosity) and the curvature of the potential surface at the transition state. In the high friction limit the transmission factor goes toward zero, and in the low friction limit the transmission factor goes toward one. 

It was shown that Kramers theory, in the high-friction limit resulting in Eq. la with a= 1, cannot accurately describe the segmental dynamics of a synthetic polymer in dilute solutions. 

SCEATS - In your work you have considered the Kramers model for 1-dimensional motion in the high and low friction limits and the Smoluchowski model for 3-dimensional motion. In my paper at this conference, I will show that the 3-d motion can be reduced to a one-dimensional problem by use of the one dimensional potential V(R)-2kTlnR, and that application of Kramers theory to the dynamics on this potential yields the Smoluchowski-Debye result in the high friction limit. Hence unimolecular and bimolecular reactions can be compared using the same model. 

In the previous sections a model of the frequency-dependent collisional friction has been derived. Because the zero-frequency friction for a spherical particle in a dense fluid is well modeled by the Stokes-Einstein result, even for particles of similar size as the bath particles, there has been considerable interest in generalizing the hydrodynamic approach used to derive this result into the frequency domain in order to derive a frequency-dependent friction that takes into account collective bath motions. The theory of Zwanzig and Bixon, corrected by Metiu, Oxtoby, and Freed, has been invoked to explain deviation from the Kramers theory for unimolec-ular chemical reactions. The hydrodynamic friction can be used as input in the Grote-Hynes theory [Eq. (2.35)] to determine the reactive frequency and hence the barrier crossing rate of the molecular reaction. However, the use of sharp boundary conditions leads to an unphysical nonzero high-frequency limit to Ib(s). which compromises its utility. 

A cornerstone of condensed phase reaction theory is the Kramers-Grote-Hynes theory. In a seminal paper Kramers solved the Fokker-Plank equation in two limiting cases, for high and low friction, by assiuning Markovian dynamics y(t) 5(t). He foimd that the rate is a non-monotonic function of the friction ( Kramers turnover .) Further progress was made by Grote and Hynes - who... 

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