Pulse radiolysis intermolecular electron transfer

One striking prediction of the energy gap law and eq. 11 and 14 is that in the inverted region, the electron transfer rate constant (kjjj. = ket) should decrease as the reaction becomes more favorable (lnknr -AE). Some evidence has been obtained for a fall-off in rate constants with increasing -AE (or -AG) for intermolecular reactions (21). Perhaps most notable is the pulse radiolysis data of Beitz and Miller (22). Nonetheless, the applicability of the energy gap law to intermolecular electron transfer in a detailed way has yet to be proven. 

Application of pulse-radiolysis techniques revealed that the following intramolecular and intermolecular electron-transfer reactions all exhibit a significant acceleration with increasing pressure. The reported volumes of activation are -17.7 0.9, 18.3 0.7, and... 

The systems that we investigated in collaboration with others involved intermolecular and intramolecular electron-transfer reactions between ruthenium complexes and cytochrome c. We also studied a series of intermolecular reactions between chelated cobalt complexes and cytochrome c. A variety of high-pressure experimental techniques, including stopped-flow, flash-photolysis, pulse-radiolysis, and voltammetry, were employed in these investigations. As the following presentation shows, a remarkably good agreement was found between the volume data obtained with the aid of these different techniques, which clearly demonstrates the complementarity of these methods for the study of electron-transfer processes. 

Application of pulse-radiolysis techniques (see Sect. 1.4 for more details on the experimental set-up) revealed that the following intramolecular (Eqs 1.6 and 1.7) and intermolecular (Eq. 1.8) electron-transfer reactions, where cyt c represents cytochrome c, all exhibit a significant acceleration with increasing pressure. The reported volumes of activation are —17.7 0.9, -18.3 0.7, and —15.6 0.6 cm mol respectively, and clearly demonstrate a significant volume collapse upon reaching the transition state [63]. 

---