Levich quantum-mechanical theory

Nov. 21, 1931, Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR - May 13, 1985) Dogonadze was one of the founders of the new science - electrochemical physics [i]. The main scientific interests of Dogonadze were focused on condensed-phase reactions. His pioneering works of 1958-59 have laid the foundations of the modern quantum-mechanical theory of elementary chemical processes in electrolyte solutions. He developed a comprehensive quantum-mechanical theory of the elementary act of electrochemical reactions of -> electron and -> proton transfer at metal and - semiconductor electrodes [ii—v]. He was the first to obtain, by a quantum-mechanical calculation, the expression for the electron transfer probability, which was published in 1959 in his work with -> Levich. He conducted a number of studies on the theory of low-velocity electrons in disordered systems, theory of solvated electrons, and theory of photochemical processes in solutions. He made an impressive contribution to the theory of elementary biochemical processes [vi]. His work in this area has led to the foundation of the theory of low-temperature -> charge-transfer processes cov-... 

Levich, V.G. and Dogonadze, R. ( 1959) Quantum mechanical theory of electron transfer in polar media. Dokl. 

Theoretically, Frumkin strongly supported quantum theoretical studies of the elementary act of electron transfer. In the Theoretical Division, led by V. G. Levich, several epochal studies were carried out by R. R. Dogonadze, Yu. A. Chizmadzhev, and A. M. Kuznetsov. In 1967-1968, Dogonadze, Kuznetsov, and Levich put forward the first quantum-mechanical theory of proton transfer later, A. M. Kuznetsov, J. Ulstrup, Ya. I. Kharkats, and M. A.Vorotyntsev systematically... 

The theory of electron-transfer reactions presented in Chapter 6 was mainly based on classical statistical mechanics. While this treatment is reasonable for the reorganization of the outer sphere, the inner-sphere modes must strictly be treated by quantum mechanics. It is well known from infrared spectroscopy that molecular vibrational modes possess a discrete energy spectrum, and that at room temperature the spacing of these levels is usually larger than the thermal energy kT. Therefore we will reconsider electron-transfer reactions from a quantum-mechanical viewpoint that was first advanced by Levich and Dogonadze [1]. In this course we will rederive several of, the results of Chapter 6, show under which conditions they are valid, and obtain generalizations that account for the quantum nature of the inner-sphere modes. By necessity this chapter contains more mathematics than the others, but the calculations axe not particularly difficult. Readers who are not interested in the mathematical details can turn to the summary presented in Section 6. 

The theoretical aspects of electron transfer mechanisms in aqueous solution have received considerable attention in the last two decades. The early successes of Marcus Q, 2), Hush (3, 4), and Levich (5) have stimulated the development of a wide variety of more detailed models, including those based on simple transition state theory, as well as more elaborate semi-clas-sical and quantum mechanical models (6-12). 

These contributions were taken explicitly to a quantum mechanical level by Levich during the 1960s and then by Schmickler, who finally published an elegant summary of quantum electrode kinetics in 1996. Schmickler stressed the quantum mechanical formulation made by Levich, Dogonadze, and Kuznetsov. However, his summary of the quantum mechanical formulation of electrode reactions still possesses the Achilles heel of earlier formulations it is restricted to nonbond-breaking, seldom-occurring outer-sphere reactions and involves the harmonic approximation for the energy variation, which is the main reason of such theories cannot replicate Tafel s law (Khan and Sidik, 1997). 

Some notions of the mechanism of electron transfer were given in Section 4.2. Any theory must be realistic and take into account the reorientation of the ionic atmosphere in mathematical terms. There have been many contributions in this area, especially by Marcus, Hush, Levich, Dog-nadze, and others5-9. The theories have been of a classical or quantum-mechanical nature, the latter being more difficult to develop but more correct. It is fundamental that the theories permit quantitative comparison between rates of electron transfer in electrodes and in homogeneous solution. 

Quantum mechanical approaches for describing electron transfer processes were first applied by Levich [4] and Dogonadze, and later also in conjunction with Kuznetsov [5]. They assumed the overlap of the electronic orbitals of the two reactants to be so weak that perturbation theory, briefly introduced in the previous section, could be used to calculate the transfer rate for reactions in homogeneous solutions or at electrodes. The polar solvent was here described by using the continuum theory. The most important step is the calculation of the Hamiltonians of the system. In general terms the latter are given for an electron transfer between two ions in solution by... 

It is curious that the striking deviations of electrochemical kinetic behavior from that expected conventionally, which are the subject of this review, have not been recognized or treated in the recent quantum-mechanical approaches, e.g., of Levich et al (e.g., see Refs. 66 and 105) to the interpretation of electrode reaction rates. The reasons for this may be traced to the emphasis which is placed in such treatments on (1) quantal effects in the energy of the system and (2) continuum modeling of the solution with consequent neglect of the specific solvational- and solvent-structure aspects that can lead, in aqueous media, to the important entropic factor in the kinetics and in other interactions in water solutions. However, the work of Hupp and Weaver, referred to on p. 153, showed that the results could be interpreted in terms of Marcus theory, with regard to potential dependence of AS, when there was a substantial net reaction entropy change in the process. 

The first quantum-mechanical consideration of ET is due to Levich and Dogonadze [7]. According to their theory, the ET system consists of two electronic states, that is, electron donor and acceptor, and the two states are coupled by the electron exchange matrix element, V, determined in the simplest case by the overlap between the electronic wave functions localized on different redox sites. Electron transfer occurs by quantum mechanical tunneling but this tunneling requires suitable bath fluctuations that bring reactant and product energy levels into resonance. In other words, ET has... 

An important achievement of the early theories was the derivation of the exact quantum mechanical expression for the ET rate in the Fermi Golden Rule limit in the linear response regime by Kubo and Toyozawa [4b], Levich and co-workers [20a] and by Ovchinnikov and Ovchinnikova [21], in terms of the dielectric spectral density of the solvent and intramolecular vibrational modes of donor and acceptor complexes. The solvent model was improved to take into account time and space correlation of the polarization fluctuations [20,21]. The importance of high-frequency intramolecular vibrations was fully recognized by Dogonadze and Kuznetsov [22], Efrima and Bixon [23], and by Jortner and co-workers [24,25] and Ulstrup [26]. It was shown that the main role of quantum modes is to effectively reduce the activation energy and thus to increase the reaction rate in the inverted... 

The basic idea of the theory of electron-transfer concerning the dynamic role of the solvent, first suggested by LIBBI /150/, has been developed by MARCUS /40a/ for outer-sphere redox processes on the basis of a classical continuum model for solvent polarization. A quantum-mechanical treatment of the same model was done by LEVICH and DO-GONADZE /40b,143/, making use of the theory of non-adiabatic radiationless electron transfer in polar crystals. 

The adiabatic redox reactions at electrodes were first considered by MARCUS /40a,145/ in a classical (semiclassical) framework. lEVICH, DOGONADZE and KUSNETSOV /146,147/, SGHMICKLER and VIELSTICH /169/ a.o. have developed a quantum theory for non-adiabatic electron transfer electrode reactions based on the oscillator-model. The complete quantum-mechanical treatment of the same model by CHRISTOV /37d,e/ comprises adiabatic and non-adiabatic redox reactions at electrodes. 

Marcus[195] gave a quantitative interpretation of this idea and above all, the role of solvent rearrangement within the framework of the absolute rate theory. Later, he also extended these concepts to electrochemical processes[196]. Similar concepts were also developed by Hush[197,198]. An important result of this work was the establishment of the relation between the transfer coefficient for adiabatic reactions and the charge distribution in the transient state. Gerischer[93,199] proposed a very useful and lucid treatment of the process of electron transfer in reactions with metallic as well as semiconductor electrodes. While the works mentioned above were mainly based on transition state theory, a systematic quantum-mechanical analysis of the problem was started by Levich, Dogonadze, and Chizmadzhev[200-202] and continued in a series of investigations by the same group. They extensively used the results and methods of solid state physics, and above all the Landau-Pekar polaron theory[203]. 

The next step was taken by Dogonadze, Kuznetsov, and Levich[91], who extended these ideas to the more complex reaction of the cathodic evolution of hydrogen. An important stage in subsequent development of the theory was the establishment of the concept of quantum-mechanical and classical degrees of freedom[204], which led to a substantiation of the analysis of a number of specific reactions, and the development of a more detailed model of the polar medium (taking into account the spatial and frequency dispersion of permittivity)[205]. 

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