RRKM theory canonical

RRKM theory, an approach to the calculation of the rate constant of indirect reactions that, essentially, is equivalent to transition-state theory. The reaction coordinate is identified as being the coordinate associated with the decay of an activated complex. It is a statistical theory based on the assumption that every state, within a narrow energy range of the activated complex, is populated with the same probability prior to the unimolecular reaction. The microcanonical rate constant k(E) is given by an expression that contains the ratio of the sum of states for the activated complex (with the reaction coordinate omitted) and the total density of states of the reactant. The canonical k(T) unimolecular rate constant is given by an expression that is similar to the transition-state theory expression of bimolecular reactions. 

Thus, according to RRKM theory for an apparent unimolecular reaction, Eq. (7.58) gives the (canonical) rate constant for such an elementary reaction ... 

TST22.23 also makes the statistical approximation and invokes an equihbrium between reactant and TS. TST invokes constant temperature instead of a micro-canonical ensemble as in RRKM theory. Using statistical mechanics, the reaction rate is given by the familiar equation... 

Variational transition state theory was suggested by Keck [36] and developed by Truhlar and others [37,38]. Although this method was originally applied to canonical transition state theory, for which there is a unique optimal transition state, it can be applied in a much more detailed way to RRKM theory, in which the transition state can be separately optimized for each energy and angular momentum [37,39,40]. This form of variational microcanonical transition state theory is discussed at length in Chapter 2, where there is also a discussion of the variational optimization of the reaction coordinate. 

The minimization of the canonical transition state partition function as in Eq. (2.13) is generally termed canonical variational RRKM theory. This approach provides an upper bound to the more proper E/J resolved minimization, but is still commonly employed since it simplifies both the numerical evaluation and the overall physical description. It typically provides a rate coefficient that is only 10 to 20% greater than the E/J resolved result of Eq. (2.11). 

The expression for the transitional mode contribution to the canonical transition state partition function in flexible RRKM theory is particularly simple [200] ... 

The proper evaluation of the quantized energy levels within the SACM requires a separable reaction coordinate and thus numerical implementations have implicitly assumed a center-of-mass separation distance for the reaction coordinate, as in flexible RRKM theory. Under certain reasonable limits the underlying adiabatic channel approximation can be shown to be equivalent to the variational RRKM approximations. Thus, the key difference between flexible RRKM theory and the SACM is in the focus on the underlying potential energy surface in flexible RRKM theory as opposed to empirical interpolation schemes in the SACM. Forst s recent implementation of micro-variational RRKM theory [210], which is based on interpolations of product and reactant canonical partition functions, provides what might be considered as an intermediate between these two theories. 

By choosing the initial conditions for an ensemble of trajectories to represent a quantum mechanical state, trajectories may be used to investigate state-specific dynamics and some of the early studies actually probed the possibility of state specificity in unimolecular decay [330]. However, an initial condition studied by many classical trajectory simulations, but not realized in any experiment is that of a micro-canonical ensemble [331] which assumes each state of the energized reactant is populated statistically with an equal probability. The classical dynamics of this ensemble is of fundamental interest, because RRKM unimolecular rate theory assumes this ensemble is maintained for the reactant [6,332] as it decomposes. As a result, RRKM theory rules-out the possibility of state-specific unimolecular decomposition. The relationship between the classical dynamics of a micro-canonical ensemble and RRKM theory is the first topic considered here. 

The fundamental assumption of RRKM theory is that the classical motion of the reactant is sufficiently chaotic so that a micro-canonical ensemble of states is maintained as the reactant decomposes [6,324]. This assumption is often referred to as one of a rapid intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) [12]. By making this assumption, at any time k E) is given by Eq. (62). As a result of the fixed time-independent rate constant k(E), N(t) decays exponentially, i.e.. 

Current developments in RRKM theory by Marcus, Wardlaw [47-49], Smith [50-52] and Klippenstein [53-56], have rigorously extended the theory to include the effects of J dependence, the result leading to micro-canonical rate coefficients which are functions of both energy, E, and the magnitude of the angular momentum, J. 

Note that this allows for a temperature-dependent transition state. Such states arise naturally in canonical free energy theories of transition state rates, " but not in conventional RRKM theory. The important result of Eqs. (2.19) and (2.16) is that the reduced FPE suggests that the dynamics of the system can be considered on the free energy surface P, and this result will be applied throughout this chapter. 

To use the master equation, one needs a general formula for the rate constant, kj, out of minimum j through transition state f. In the micro-canonical ensemble this relation is provided by Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory [166] ... 

Thus, for state-specific decay and the most statistical (or nonseparable) case, a micro-canonical ensemble does not decay exponentially as predicted by RRKM theory. It is worthwhile noting that when v/2 becomes very large, the right-hand side of Eq. (8.24) approaches exp -kt) (Miller, 1988), since lim (1 + xln) " = exp (-x), when n-> °o. Other distributions for P(k), besides the Porter-Thomas distribution, have been considered and all give M(f, E) expressions which are nonexponential (Lu and Hase, 1989b). 

Intrinsic non-RRKM behavior occurs when an initial microcanonical ensemble decays nonexponentially or exponentially with a rate constant different from that of RRKM theory. The former occurs when there is a bottleneck (or bottlenecks) in the classical phase space so that transitions between different regions of phase space are less probable than that for crossing the transition state [fig. 8.9(e)]. Thus, a micro-canonical ensemble is not maintained during the unimolecular decomposition. A limiting case for intrinsic non-RRKM behavior occurs when the reactant molecule s phase space is metrically decomposable into two parts, for example, one part consisting of chaotic trajectories which can decompose and the other of quasiperiodic trajectories which are trapped in the reactant phase space (Hase et al., 1983). If the chaotic motion gives rise to a uniform distribution in the chaotic part of phase space, the unimolecular decay will be exponential with a rate constant k given by... 

At the high-pressure limit, equation (23) can be integrated analytically and it can be shown that k-am(X) obtained from RRKM theory as described here is similar but not equal to the high-pressure rate obtained via canonical transition state theory ... 

RRKM theory is the well-known and consolidated statistical theory for unimolecular dissociation. It was developed in the late 1920s by Rice and Ramsperger [141, 142] and Kassel [143], who treated a system as an assembly of s identical harmonic oscillators. One oscillator is truncated at the activation energy Eq. The theory disregards any quantum effect and the approximation of having all identical is too cmde, such that the derived equation for micro canonical rate constant, k(E),... 

Chemical kinetic rate methods including conventional transition state theory (TST), canonical variational transition state theory (CVTST) and Rice-Ramsper-ger-Kassel-Marcus in conjunction with master equation (RRKM/ME) and separate statistical ensemble (SSE) have been successfully applied to the hydrocarbon oxidation. Transition state theory has been developed and employed in many disciplines of chemistry [41 4]. In the atmospheric chemistry field, conventional transition state theory is employed to calculate the high-pressure-limit unimole-cular or bimolecular rate constants if a well-defined transition state (i.e., a tight... 

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