Solvent properties, solution-state nuclear

The goal of theory and computer simulation is to predict S i) and relate it to solvent and solute properties. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to determine how the presence of the solvent affects the So —> Si electronic transition energy. The usual assmnption is that the chromophore undergoes a Franck-Condon transition, i.e., that the transition occurs essentially instantaneously on the time scale of nuclear motions. The time-evolution of the fluorescence Stokes shift is then due the solvent effects on the vertical energy gap between the So and Si solute states. In most models for SD, the time-evolution of the solute electronic stracture in response to the changes in solvent environment is not taken into accoimt and one focuses on the portion AE of the energy gap due to nuclear coordinates. 

It was also observed, in 1973, that the fast reduction of Cu ions by solvated electrons in liquid ammonia did not yield the metal and that, instead, molecular hydrogen was evolved [11]. These results were explained by assigning to the quasi-atomic state of the nascent metal, specific thermodynamical properties distinct from those of the bulk metal, which is stable under the same conditions. This concept implied that, as soon as formed, atoms and small clusters of a metal, even a noble metal, may exhibit much stronger reducing properties than the bulk metal, and may be spontaneously corroded by the solvent with simultaneous hydrogen evolution. It also implied that for a given metal the thermodynamics depended on the particle nuclearity (number of atoms reduced per particle), and it therefore provided a rationalized interpretation of other previous data [7,9,10]. Furthermore, experiments on the photoionization of silver atoms in solution demonstrated that their ionization potential was much lower than that of the bulk metal [12]. Moreover, it was shown that the redox potential of isolated silver atoms in water must... 

The energy properties refers to stationary, time-independent, states of the solute molecules. This implies a complete equilibration between the degrees of freedom, electronic and nuclear, of the solute and of the solvent. For the last two categories, on the contrary, we have to consider not only an equilibrated solute-solvent system but also the dynaunics of its response to a time dependent perturbation. 

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