Phonons chemical reaction dynamics

Because of the fundamental importance of solvent-solute interactions in chemical reactions, the dynamics of solvation have been widely studied. However, most studies have focused on systems where charge redistribution within the solute is the dominant effect of changing the electronic stale.[I,2] Recently, Fourkas, Benigno and Berg studied the solvation dynamics of a nonpolar solute in a nonpolar solvent, where charge redistribution plays a minor role.[3,4] These studies showed two distinct dynamic components a subpicosecond, viscosity independent relaxation driven by phonon-like processes, and a slower, viscosity dependent structural relaxation. These results have been explained quantitatively by a theory of solvation based on mechanical relaxation of the solvent in response to changes in the molecular size of the solute on excitation.[6] Here, we present results on the solvation of a nonpolar solute, s-tetrazine, by a polar solvent, propylene carbonate over the temperature range 300-160 K. In this system, comparisons to several theoretical approaches to solvation are possible. 

However it turned out that the structural, chemical and dynamical details are essential for complex descriptions of long-range proton transport. These parameters appear to be distinctly different for different families of compounds, preventing proton conduction processes from being described by a single model or concept as is the case for electron transfer reactions in solutions (described within Marcus theory [23]) or hydrogen diffusion in metals (incoherent phonon assisted tunneling [24]). 

The observations of complex dynamics associated with electron-stimulated desorption or desorption driven by resonant excitation to repulsive electronic states are not unexpected. Their similarity to the dynamics observed in the visible and near-infrared LID illustrate the need for a closer investigation of the physical relaxation mechanisms of low energy electron/hole pairs in metals. When the time frame for reaction has been compressed to that of the 10 s laser pulse, many thermal processes will not effectively compete with the effects of transient low energy electrons or nonthermal phonons. It is these relaxation channels which might both play an important role in the physical or chemical processes driven by laser irradiation of surfaces, and provide dramatic insight into subtle details of molecule-surface dynamics. 

The aim of this chapter is to clarify the conditions for which chemical kinetics can be correctly applied to the description of solid state processes. Kinetics describes the evolution in time of a non-equilibrium many-particle system towards equilibrium (or steady state) in terms of macroscopic parameters. Dynamics, on the other hand, describes the local motion of the individual particles of this ensemble. This motion can be uncorrelated (single particle vibration, jump) or it can be correlated (e.g., through non-localized phonons). Local motions, as described by dynamics, are necessary prerequisites for the thermally activated jumps responsible for the movements over macroscopic distances which we ultimately categorize as transport and solid state reaction.. 

---