Transition state theory microcanonical

The generalized-transition-state-theory microcanonical rate constant is a function of the total energy E and the location of the transition state it is given by... 

It may be iisefiil to mention here one currently widely applied approximation for barrierless reactions, which is now frequently called microcanonical and canonical variational transition state theory (equivalent to the minimum density of states and maximum free energy transition state theory in figure A3,4,7. This type of theory can be understood by considering the partition fiinctions Q r ) as fiinctions of r similar to equation (A3,4.108) but with F (r ) instead of V Obviously 2(r J > Q so that the best possible choice for a... 

In deriving the RRKM rate constant in section A3.12.3.1. it is assumed that the rate at which reactant molecules cross the transition state, in the direction of products, is the same rate at which the reactants fonn products. Thus, if any of the trajectories which cross the transition state in the product direction return to the reactant phase space, i.e. recross the transition state, the actual unimolecular rate constant will be smaller than that predicted by RRKM theory. This one-way crossing of the transition state, witii no recrossmg, is a fiindamental assumption of transition state theory [21]. Because it is incorporated in RRKM theory, this theory is also known as microcanonical transition state theory. 

H. Waalkens, A. Burbanks, and S. Wiggins, A formula to compute the microcanonical volume of reactive initial conditions in transition state theory, J. Phys. A 38, L759 (2005). 

Because T -> V energy transfer does not lead to complex formation and complexes are only formed by unoriented collisions, the Cl" + CH3C1 -4 Cl"—CH3C1 association rate constant calculated from the trajectories is less than that given by an ion-molecule capture model. This is shown in Table 8, where the trajectory association rate constant is compared with the predictions of various capture models.9 The microcanonical variational transition state theory (pCVTST) rate constants calculated for PES1, with the transitional modes treated as harmonic oscillators (ho) are nearly the same as the statistical adiabatic channel model (SACM),13 pCVTST,40 and trajectory capture14 rate constants based on the ion-di-pole/ion-induced dipole potential,... 

Of course, one is not really interested in classical mechanical calculations. Thus in normal practice the partition functions used in TST, as discussed in Chapter 4, are evaluated using quantum partition functions for harmonic frequencies (extension to anharmonicity is straightforward). On the other hand rotations and translations are handled classically both in TST and in VTST, which is a standard approximation except at very low temperatures. Later, by introducing canonical partition functions one can direct the discussion towards canonical variational transition state theory (CVTST) where the statistical mechanics involves ensembles defined in terms of temperature and volume. There is also a form of variational transition state theory based on microcanonical ensembles referred to by the symbol p,. Discussion of VTST based on microcanonical ensembles pVTST is beyond the scope of the discussion here. It is only mentioned that in pVTST the dividing surface is... 

TST = conventional Transition State Theory, ICVT = Improved Canonical Variational Transition state theory, ICVT/SCT = ICVT/Small Curvature Tunneling, ICVT/p,OMT = ICVT/Microcanonical Optimized Multidimensional Tunneling. 

R. A. Marcus My interests in variational microcanonical transition state theory with J conservation goes back to a J. Chem. Phys. 1965 paper [1], and perhaps I could make a few comments. First, using a variational treatment we showed with Steve Klippenstein a few years ago that the transition-state switching mentioned by Prof. Lorquet poses no major problem The calculations sometimes reveal two, instead of one, bottlenecks (transition states, position of minimum entropy along the reaction coordinate) [2], and then one can use a method described by Miller and partly anticipated by Wigner and Hirschfelder to calculate the net dux. 

Microcanonical transition-state theory and SACM are identical only for single channels, not for groups of channels. However, in some cases the results come close to each other in other cases they differ. 

An efficient implementation of microcanonical classical variational transition state theory was applied to Si—H bond fission in SiFF and compared with trajectory calculations on the same potential surface235. 

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. 

First, we want to derive an expression for the microcanonical rate constant k(E) when the total internal energy of the reactant is in the range E to E + dE. From Eq. (7.43), the rate of reaction is given by the rate of disappearance of A or, equivalently, by the rate at which activated complexes A pass over the barrier, i.e., the flow through the saddle-point region. The essential assumptions of RRKM theory are equivalent to the assumptions underlying transition-state theory. 

RRKM theory, developed from RRK theory by Marcus and others [20-23], is the most commonly applied theory for microcanonical rate coefficients, and is essentially the formulation of transition state theory for isolated molecules. An isolated molecule has two important conserved quantities, constants of the motion , namely its energy and its angular momentum. The RRKM rate coefficient for a unimolecular reaction may depend on both of these. For the sake... 

This set of approximations is essentially similar to that for the more familiar canonical transition state theory, apart from the final assumption, that the state is described by a microcanonical distribution (i.e. fixed energy) rather than the Boltzmann distribution (thermal equilibrium) of canonical transition state theory. 

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 determination of the microcanonical rate coefficient k E) is the subject of active research. A number of techniques have been proposed, and include RRKM theory (discussed in more detail in Section 2.4.4) and the derivatives of this such as Flexible Transition State theory. Phase Space Theory and the Statistical Adiabatic Channel Model. All of these techniques require a detailed knowledge of the potential energy surface (PES) on which the reaction takes place, which for most reactions is not known. As a consequence much effort has been devoted to more approximate techniques which depend only on specific PES features such as reaction threshold energies. These techniques often have a number of parameters whose values are determined by calibration with experimental data. Thus the analysis of the experimental data then becomes an exercise in the optimization of these parameters so as to reproduce the experimental data as closely as possible. One such technique is based on Inverse Laplace Transforms (ILT). 

Cf. R. A. Marcus, J. Chem. Phys. 45,2630 (1966). This paper contains this criterion (p. 2635), but mistakenly ascribes it to Bunker, who actually uses, instead, a minimized density of states criterion [D. L. Bunker and M. Pattengill, J. Chem. Phys. 48, 772 (1968)]. This minimum number of states criterion has been used by various authors, for example, W. L. Hase, J. Chem. Phys. 57, 730 (1972) 64, 2442 (1976) M. Quack and J. Troe (Ref. 21) B. C. Garrett and D. G. Truhlar, J. Chem. Phys. 70, 1593 (1979). The transition state theory utilizing it is now frequently termed microcanonical variational transition state theory (/iVTST). A recent review of /tVTST and of canonical VTST is given in D. G. Truhlar and B. C. Garrett, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 35,159 (1984). 

Intramolecular hydrogen transfer is another important class of chemical reactions that has been widely studied using transition state theory. Unimolecular gas-phase reactions are most often treated using RRKM theory [60], which combines a microcanonical transition state theory treatment of the unimolecular reaction step with models for energy redistribution within the molecule. In this presentation we will focus on the unimolecular reaction step and assume that energy redistribution is rapid, which is equivalent to the high-pressure limit of RRKM theory. 

Another system where accurate microcanonical rate constants have been calculated is Li + HF - LiF + H with 7 = 0 (172). This reaction has variational transition states in the exit valley. Variational transition state theory agrees very well with accurate quantum dynamical calculations up to about 0.15 eV above threshold. After that, deviations are observed, increasing to about a factor of 2 about 0.3 eV above threshold. These deviations were attributed to effective barriers in the entrance valley these are supernumerary transition states. After Gaussian convolution of the accurate results, only a hint of step structure due to the variational transition states remains. Densities of reactive states, which would make the transition state spectrum more visible, were not published (172). 

In transition state theory it is assumed that a dynamical bottleneck in the interaction region controls chemical reactivity. Transition state theory relates the rate of a chemical reaction in a microcanonical ensemble to the number of energetically accessible vibrational-rotational levels of the interacting particles at the dynamical bottleneck. In spite of the success of transition state theory, direct evidence for a quantized spectrum of the transition state has been found only recently, and this evidence was found first in accurate quantum mechanical reactive scattering calculations. Quantized transition states have now been identified in accurate three-dimensional quantal calculations for 12 reactive atom-diatom systems. The systems are H + H2, D + H2, O + H2, Cl + H2, H + 02, F + H2, Cl + HC1, I + HI, I 4- DI, He + H2, Ne + H2, and O + HC1. 

Figure 2 Reaction probability for the collinear H + H2 reaction on the Porter-Karplus potential surface from a microcanonical classical trajectory calculation (CLDYN) and microcanonical classical transition state theory (CLTST) as a function of total energy above the barrier height (1 eV = 23.06 kcal/mole).

These SCTST expressions, in both the microcanonical (Eq. (27)) and canonical (Eq. (31)) forms, include coupling between all the degrees of freedom in a uniform manner. For example, even at the perturbative level, Eq. (23), there is an anharmonic coupling between modes of the activated complex x, , k and k < F -1) and between the reaction coordinate and modes of the activated complex (xkJ, < F — 1). This is not a dynamically exact theory, however, because these actions variables are in general only locally good. For energies too far above or below the barrier V0 they may fail to exist. This semiclassical theory is thus still a transition state theory (i.e., dynamical approximation). 

The microcanonical and canonical variational transition-state theories are based on the assumption that trajectories cross the transition state (TS) only once in forming products(s) or reactants(s) [70,71]. The correction to the transition-state theory rate constant is determined by initializing trajectories at the TS and sampling their coordinates and momenta from the appropriate statistical distribution [72-76]. The value for is the number of trajectories that form product(s) divided by the number of crossings of the TS in the reactant(s) -> produces), direction. Transition state theories assume this ratio is unity. 

Microcanonical transition-state theory (TST) assumes that all vibrational-rotational levels for the degrees of freedom orthogonal to the reaction coordinate have equal probabilities of being populated [12]. The quasi-classical normal-mode/rigid-rotor model described above may be used to choose Cartesian coordinates and momenta for these energy levels. Assuming a symmetric top system, the TS energy E is written as... 

The Lindemann mechanism consists of three reaction steps. Reactions (1.4) and (1.5) are bimolecular reactions so that the true unimolecular step is reaction (1.6). Because the system described by Eqs. (1.4)-(l. 6) is at some equilibrium temperature, the high-pressure unimolecular rate constant is the canonical k T). This can be derived by transition state theory in terms of partition functions. However, in order to illustrate the connection between microcanonical and canonical systems, we consider here the case of k(E) and use Eq.(1.3) to convert to k(T). 

It is interesting to consider the relationship between the reaction degeneracy and the molecular symmetries in canonical transition state theories. In the latter, the rate constants are expressed in terms of the partition functions, including the rotational partition functions, so that the molecular symmetries are automatically included. On the other hand, in the microcanonical TST, the rotational density of states is often not part of the rate constant expression (see discussion of rotational effects in the following chapter). Thus, the reaction degeneracy must be included separately. 

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