Potential energy surface reaction rate theory

Rather than using transition state theory or trajectory calculations, it is possible to use a statistical description of reactions to compute the rate constant. There are a number of techniques that can be considered variants of the statistical adiabatic channel model (SACM). This is, in essence, the examination of many possible reaction paths, none of which would necessarily be seen in a trajectory calculation. By examining paths that are easier to determine than the trajectory path and giving them statistical weights, the whole potential energy surface is accounted for and the rate constant can be computed. 

The low-temperature chemistry evolved from the macroscopic description of a variety of chemical conversions in the condensed phase to microscopic models, merging with the general trend of present-day rate theory to include quantum effects and to work out a consistent quantal description of chemical reactions. Even though for unbound reactant and product states, i.e., for a gas-phase situation, the use of scattering theory allows one to introduce a formally exact concept of the rate constant as expressed via the flux-flux or related correlation functions, the applicability of this formulation to bound potential energy surfaces still remains an open question. 

Experiments have also played a critical role in the development of potential energy surfaces and reaction dynamics. In the earliest days of quantum chemistry, experimentally determined thermal rate constants were available to test and improve dynamical theories. Much more detailed information can now be obtained by experimental measurement. Today experimentalists routinely use molecular beam and laser techniques to examine how reaction cross-sections depend upon collision energies, the states of the reactants and products, and scattering angles. 

Here it was found that the tunneling factor k is very close to unity. However this result is uncertain because the magnitude of k is sensitive to the choice of the potential energy surface which is not as well established for reaction 6.20 as it is for 6.6. For that matter, learning whether a given reaction rate is significantly influenced by tunneling either on the basis of theory or experiment is not a trivial problem as will be pointed out in further discussion. 

A similar relationship is also derived by the absolute reaction rate theory, which is used almost exclusively in considering, and understanding, the kinetics of reactions in solution. The activated complex in the transition state is reached by reactants in the initial state as the highest point of the most favorable reaction path on the potential energy surface. The activated complex Xms in equilibrium with the reactants A and B, and the rate of the reaction V is the product of the equilibrium concentration of X and the specific rate at which it decomposes. The latter can be shown to be equal to kT/h, where k is Boltzmannn s constant and h is Planck s constant ... 

In siunmary, although the application of detailed chemical kinetic modeling to heterogeneous reactions is possible, the effort needed is considerably more involved than in the gas-phase reactions. The thermochemistry of surfaces, clusters, and adsorbed species can be determined in a manner analogous to those associated with the gas-phase species. Similarly, rate parameters of heterogeneous elementary reactions can be estimated, via the application of the transition state theory, by determining the thermochemistry of saddle points on potential energy surfaces. 

In transition-state theory, the absolute rate of a reaction is directly proportional to the concentration of the activated complex at a given temperature and pressure. The rate of the reaction is equal to the concentration of the activated complex times the average frequency with which a complex moves across the potential energy surface to the product side. If one assumes that the activated complex is in equilibrium with the unactivated reactants, the calculation of the concentration of this complex is greatly simplified. Except in the cases of extremely fast reactions, this equilibrium can be treated with standard thermodynamics or statistical mechanics . The case of... 

It is well known that a solvent can canse dramatic changes in rates and even mechanisms of chemical reactions. Modem theoretical chemistry makes it possible to incorporate solvent effects into calcnlations of the potential energy surface in the framework of the continnnm and explicit solvent models. In the former, a solvent is represented by a homogeneous medium with a bulk dielectric constant. The second model reflects specific molecule-solvent interactions. Finally, calculations of the potential energy surface in the presence or absence of solvents can be performed at various theory levels that have been considered in detail by Zieger and Autschbach [10]. 

Theoretical rate calculations. Statistical mechanics permits one in principle to compute reaction-rate expressions from first principles if one knows the potential energy surface over which the reaction occurs, and quantum mechanics permits one to calculate this potential energy surface. In Chapter 4 we consider briefly the theory of reaction rates from which reaction rates would be calculated. In practice, these are seldom simple calculations to perform, and one needs to find a colleague who is an accomplished statistical mechanic or quantum mechanic to do these calculations, and even then considerable computer time and costs are usually involved. 

The most accurate theories of reaction rates come from statistical mechanics. These theories allow one to write the partition function for molecules and thus to formulate a quantitative description of rates. Rate expressions for many homogeneous elementary reaction steps come from these calculations, which use quantum mechanics to calculate the energy levels of molecules and potential energy surfaces over which molecules travel in the transition between reactants and products. These theories give... 

The only unsatisfactory aspect of this work is that it does not enable estimates of the reaction radius, R, or the mutual diffusion coefficient, D, to be made from experimentally measured rate coefficients. Nevertheless, the agreement between experiment and theory is very encouraging. Korth et al. have studied the recombination of cyano-substituted alkyl radicals and found a similar close relation between the measured rate coefficient, ft, and T/r) [45b], They presented evidence to suggest that the radicals recombine on an attractive potential energy surface. 

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