Principle of microscopic reversibility

Under the same conditions, the mechanism of the forward and reverse reactions must be the same. This results because the least energetic pathway in one direction must be the least energetic pathway in the other direction. The intermediates and transition state must be the same in either direction. One consequence of this is that a catalyst for a forward reaction will be a catalyst for the reverse reaction. 

Brown pointed out that this mechanism violates the principle of microscopic reversibility because, if dissociation of a cis-CO is more favorable kinetically, then addition of a CO to the cis position also must be more favorable. 

Subsequent work by Atwood and Brown, using IR detection, indicates that the exchange of the cis CO is faster. Jackson has suggested that the more recent analysis transgresses the principle of detailed balancing, but 

Pearson, R. G. Kinetics and Mechanism, 3rd ed. Wilcy-Interscience New York, 1980. 

Espenson, J. H. Chemical Kinetics and Reaction Mechanisms McGraw-Hill New York, 1981. 

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It might be thought that since chemisorption equilibrium was discussed in Section XVIII-3 and chemisorption rates in Section XVIII-4B, the matter of desorption rates is determined by the principle of microscopic reversibility (or, detailed balancing) and, indeed, this principle is used (see Ref. 127 for... 

The exponential fiinction of the matrix can be evaluated tln-ough the power series expansion of exp(). c is the coliinm vector whose elements are the concentrations c.. The matrix elements of the rate coefficient matrix K are the first-order rate constants W.. The system is called closed if all reactions and back reactions are included. Then K is of rank N- 1 with positive eigenvalues, of which exactly one is zero. It corresponds to the equilibrium state, witii concentrations r detennined by the principle of microscopic reversibility ... 

The observation that in the activated complex the reaction centre has lost its hydrophobic character, can have important consequences. The retro Diels-Alder reaction, for instance, will also benefit from the breakdown of the hydrophobic hydration shell during the activation process. The initial state of this reaction has a nonpolar character. Due to the principle of microscopic reversibility, the activated complex of the retro Diels-Alder reaction is identical to that of the bimoleciilar Diels-Alder reaction which means this complex has a negligible nonpolar character near the reaction centre. O nsequently, also in the activation process of the retro Diels-Alder reaction a significant breakdown of hydrophobic hydration takes placed Note that for this process the volume of activation is small, which implies that the number of water molecules involved in hydration of the reacting system does not change significantly in the activation process. 

In any equilibrium process the sequence of intermediates and transition states encountered as reactants proceed to products m one direction must also be encountered and m precisely the reverse order m the opposite direction This is called the principle of microscopic reversibility Just as the reaction... 

When the addition and elimination reactions are mechanically reversible, they proceed by identical mechanistic paths but in opposite directions. In these circumstances, mechanistic conclusions about the addition reaction are applicable to the elimination reaction and vice versa. The principle of microscopic reversibility states that the mechanism (pathway) traversed in a reversible reaction is the same in the reverse as in the forward direction. Thus, if an addition-elimination system proceeds by a reversible mechanism, the intermediates and transition states involved in the addition process are the same as... 

The iodide-induced reduction is essentially the reverse of a halogenation. Application of the principle of microscopic reversibility would suggest that the reaction would proceed through a bridged intermediate as shown below. ... 

The principle of microscopic reversibility requires that the reverse process, ring closure of a butadiene to a cyclobutene, must also be a coiuotatory process. Usually, this is thermodynamically unfavorable, but a case in which the ring closure is energetically favorable is conversion of tra s,cis-2,4-cyclooctadiene (1) to bicyclo[4.2.0]oct-7-ene (2). The ring closure is favorable in this case because of the strain associated with the trans double bond. The ring closure occurs by a coiuotatory process. 

Detailed balance is a chemical application of the more general principle of microscopic reversibility, which has its basis in the mathematical conclusion that the equations of motion are symmetric under time reversal. Thus, any particle trajectory in the time period t = 0 to / = ti undergoes a reversal in the time period t = —ti to t = 0, and the particle retraces its trajectoiy. In the field of chemical kinetics, this principle is sometimes stated in these equivalent forms ... 

A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a reaction without affecting the position of equilibrium. It follows that the rate in the reverse direction must be increased by the same factor as that in the forward direction. This is a consequence of the principle of microscopic reversibility (Section 3.3), which applies at equilibrium, and rates are often studied far from equilibrium. 

Lack of termination in a polymerization process has another important consequence. Propagation is represented by the reaction Pn+M -> Pn+1 and the principle of microscopic reversibility demands that the reverse reaction should also proceed, i.e., Pn+1 -> Pn+M. Since there is no termination, the system must eventually attain an equilibrium state in which the equilibrium concentration of the monomer is given by the equation Pn- -M Pn+1 Hence the equilibrium constant, and all other thermodynamic functions characterizing the system monomer-polymer, are determined by simple measurements of the equilibrium concentration of monomer at various temperatures. 

By the principle of microscopic reversibility, it follows that protodeiodination must in all steps be the reverse of iodination, and since this latter reaction is partly rate-determining in loss of a proton (see pp. 94-97, 136) it follows that attachment of a proton should be rate-determining in the reverse reaction this was found to be the case, the first-order rate coefficients for reaction in H20 and 97.5 % D20 being 76.6 and 13.1 x 10"6 respectively, so that kH20jkD20 = 5.8. 

For every positive term there is a corresponding negative one, a manifestation of the principle of microscopic reversibility, discussed further in Section 7.8. 

FORWARD AND REVERSE RATE CONSTANTS AND THE PRINCIPLE OF MICROSCOPIC REVERSIBILITY... 

We now introduce the principle of microscopic reversibility. This states that the transition states for any pathway for an elementary reaction in forward and reverse directions are related as mirror images. The atoms are in the same places but the momentum vectors are, of course, reversed since in general the transition state is proceeding in one direction only. In other words, the forward and reverse mechanisms are identical, according to this principle. 

Another case to which we can apply the principle of microscopic reversibility is the isomerization of cis- and rrans-(H20)4CrClJ and the loss of Cl- from each. This system has been studied both by careful chromatographic separation of the components20 in quenched solutions and by simultaneous multiwavelength spec-trophotometric determinations.21 The scheme is as follows, where the subscript c indicates cis, t trans, and m the monochloro complex ... 

Application of the principle of microscopic reversibility can be used to eliminate a mechanism suggested at one time for the nucleophilic substitution reactions of square-planar platinum(II) complexes. For the sake of specificity, we take PtCl - as a typical... 

For each catalyst, the mechanism for one direction is the exact reverse of the other, by the principle of microscopic reversibility. As expected from mechanisms in which the C—H bond is broken in the rate-determining step, substrates of the type RCD2COR show deuterium isotope effects (of 5) in both the basic- and the acid -catalyzed processes. 

When the reaction proceeds by this pathway, 29 and similar intermediates are not involved and the mechanism is exactly (by the principle of microscopic reversibility)... 

Most of the reactions considered in this chapter can be reversed. In many cases, we shall consider the reverse reactions with the forward ones, in the same section. The reverse of some of the other reactions are considered in other chapters. In still other cases, one of the reactions in this chapter is the reverse of another (e.g.. 16-2 and 16-12). For reactions that are reversible, the principle of microscopic reversibility (p. 285) applies. 

This reaction is reversible and suitable p-hydroxy alkenes can be cleaved by heat (17-34). There is evidence that the cleavage reaction occurs by a cyclic mechanism (p. 1351), and, by the principle of microscopic reversibility, the addition mechanism should be cyclic too. Note that this reaction is an oxygen analog of the ene... 

Note that these mechanisms are the reverse of those involved in the acid-catalyzed hydration of double bonds (15-3), in accord with the principle of microscopic reversibility. With anhydrides (e.g., P2O5, phthalic anhydride) as well as with some other reagents such as HMPA, it is likely that an ester is formed, and the leaving group is the conjugate base of the corresponding acid. In these cases, the mechanism can be El or E2. The mechanism with AI2O3 and other solid catalysts has been studied extensively but is poorly understood. 

It is useful to differentiate between substrate specificity, which is the inclination of the given enzyme to react more efficiently with (or, in some cases, bind more tightly to) some potential substrates than others, and product specificity, which is the inclination of the enzyme to transform the substrate into only one (usually) of many possible isomeric products. As a consequence of the principle of microscopic reversibility, for a reversible reaction, product specificity for the reaction in one direction becomes equivalent to substrate specificity in the other direction. 

Evidence for a glycosyl-enzyme intermediate of finite lifetime with inverting a-D-glycosidases, and details of its reaction, came from studies with 2,6-anhydro-l-deoxyhept-l-enitols and glycosyl fluorides. - Analysis of hydration and hydrolysis products on the one hand, and of glycosyla-tion products on the other, indicated an intermediate that could be approached by water from the yff-face only of the ring, and by other glycosyl acceptors only from the a-face (see Schemes 4 and 5 This can be considered a proof of the principle of microscopic reversibility of chemical reactions. 

The WGS reaction is a reversible reaction, that is, it attains equilibrium with reverse WGS reaction. Thus the fact that the WGS reaction is promoted by H20(a reactant), in turn, implies that the reverse WGS reaction may also be promoted by a reactant, H2 or CO2. In fact the decomposition of the surface formates produced from H2+CO2 is promoted 8-10 times by gas-phase hydrogen. The WGS and reverse WGS reactions can conceivably proceed on different formate sites of the ZnO surface unlike usual catalytic reaction kinetics, while the occurrence of the reactant-promoted reactions does not violate the principle of microscopic reversibility[63]. 

The rate constants in table 4 for Ru/AlaOs should be considered as initial rate constants since it was not possible to achieve a higher coverage of N— than 0.25. Furthennorc, it was not possible to detect TPA peaks for Ru/AlaOs within the experimental detection limit of about 20 ppm. Ru/MgO is a heterogeneous system with respect to the adsorption and desorption of Na due to the presence of promoted active sites which dominate under NH3 synthesis conditions. The rate constant of desorption given in table 4 for Ru/MgO refers to the unpromoted sites [19]. The Na TPD, Na TPA and lER results thus demonstrate the enhancing influence of the alkali promoter on the rate of N3 dissociation and recombination as expected based on the principle of microscopic reversibility. Adding alkali renders the Ru metal surfaces more uniform towards the interaction with Na. 

An expression for the equilibrium occupancy of pARt can again be obtained using the methods outlined in Chapter 1. A potential complication is that this mechanism contains a cycle, so the product of the reaction rates in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions should be equal in order to ensure the principle of microscopic reversibility is maintained. In this case, microscopic reversibility is maintained. Thus,... 

If B is unreactive or gives different products, no A results. Since different intermediates are involved, the principle of microscopic reversibility does not even enter the picture. If, however,... 

Thus isomerization of the trans to cis ketone is stereospecific while isomerization of cis to trans results in about 28% racemization. Postulating different pathways for trans to cis and cis to trans isomerizations would appear at first hand to violate the principle of microscopic reversibility. However, what we are dealing with here are the excited state intermediates as reactants and these are not necessarily in equilibrium for the two isomers. For example, taking the analogy... 

Guideline 7. A postulated mechanism for a reaction in the forward direction must also hold for the reverse reaction. This guideline is a consequence of the principle of microscopic reversibility. (See Section 4.1.5.4.) Three corollaries of this guideline should also be kept in mind when postulating a reaction mechanism. First, the rate limiting step for the reverse reaction must... 

The Principle of Microscopic Reversibility. The principle of microscopic reversibility is based on statistical mechanical arguments and was first formulated by Tolman (17) in 1924. 

A value of k5 was not reported because of the large uncertainty in this parameter. Use the principle of microscopic reversibility to determine a value of k5 at this temperature for this catalyst. 

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