Reaction coordinate transfer energy

Fig. 6 Diabatic solid black line) and adiabatic dashed red line) potential energy surfaces of two electronic dimer states 4>Ab) and ob) participating in the charge transfer reaction along the reaction coordinate Reorganization energies...

Figure 6. Diabatic and corresponding adiabatic potential energy along a relevant reaction coordinate for normal electron transfer...

This section contains a brief review of the molecular version of Marcus theory, as developed by Warshel [81]. The free energy surface for an electron transfer reaction is shown schematically in Eigure 1, where R represents the reactants and A, P represents the products D and A , and the reaction coordinate X is the degree of polarization of the solvent. The subscript o for R and P denotes the equilibrium values of R and P, while P is the Eranck-Condon state on the P-surface. The activation free energy, AG, can be calculated from Marcus theory by Eq. (4). This relation is based on the assumption that the free energy is a parabolic function of the polarization coordinate. Eor self-exchange transfer reactions, we need only X to calculate AG, because AG° = 0. Moreover, we can write... 

Thus far we have discussed the direct mechanism of dissipation, when the reaction coordinate is coupled directly to the continuous spectrum of the bath degrees of freedom. For chemical reactions this situation is rather rare, since low-frequency acoustic phonon modes have much larger wavelengths than the size of the reaction complex, and so they cannot cause a considerable relative displacement of the reactants. The direct mechanism may play an essential role in long-distance electron transfer in dielectric media, when the reorganization energy is created by displacement of equilibrium positions of low-frequency polarization phonons. Another cause of friction may be anharmonicity of solids which leads to multiphonon processes. In particular, the Raman processes may provide small energy losses. 

Fig. 5. Potential energy-reaction coordinate diagram for an electron transfer reaction leading to a product adsorbed on the electrode surface.

Fig. 12. Energy-reaction coordinate diagram for electron transfer in solution when there is only weak interaction between the initial and final energy states.

The left (solid) parabolic curve represents the oxidized state, the right one, the reduced state. Let us assume that the system is initially at the oxidized state (left curve). When the interaction metal-reaction species is small, the electronic coupling between is small and the system may oscillate many times on the left parabolic curve (ox) before it is transferred to the curve on the right (red). On the other hand, if the interaction is strong, the free energy should no longer be represented by the two solid curves in the intermediate region of the reaction coordinate, but rather, by the dashed... 

F ure 9.26. Energy profile along (a) the reaction coordinate at an avoided crossing for a photochemical reaction and (h) an electron transfer process. 

In summary, to apply the Marcus theory of electron transfer, it is necessary to see if the temperature dependence of the electron transfer rate constant can be described by a function of the Arrhenius form. When this is valid, one can then determine the activation energy AEa only under this condition can we use AEa to determine if the parabolic dependence on AG/ is valid and if the reaction coordinate is defined. 

Fig. 1 Free energy reaction coordinate profiles for hydration and isomerization of the alkene [2] through the simple tertiary carbocation [1+], The rate constants for partitioning of [1 ] to form [l]-OSolv and [3] are limited by solvent reorganization (ks = kteorg) and proton transfer (kp), respectively. For simplicity, the solvent reorganization step is not shown for the conversion of [1+] to [3], but the barrier for this step is smaller than the chemical barrier to deprotonation of [1 ] (kTtOTg > kp).

Fig. 5 Potential energy hypersurfaces as a function of the reaction coordinate for adiabatic (A, single-minimum potential B, double-minimum potential) and non-adiabatic (C) electron-transfer reactions.

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