Solvent dynamics, energy surfaces

This is no longer the case when (iii) motion along the reaction patir occurs on a time scale comparable to other relaxation times of the solute or the solvent, i.e. the system is partially non-relaxed. In this situation dynamic effects have to be taken into account explicitly, such as solvent-assisted intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) in the solute, solvent-induced electronic surface hopping, dephasing, solute-solvent energy transfer, dynamic caging, rotational relaxation, or solvent dielectric and momentum relaxation. [Pg.831]

Only if one takes into account the solvent dynamics, the situation changes. The electron transfer from the metal to the acceptor results in the transition from the initial free energy surface to the final surface and subsequent relaxation of the solvent polarization to the final equilibrium value Pqj,. This brings the energy level (now occupied) to its equilibrium position e red far below the Fermi level, where it remains occupied independent of the position of the acceptor with respect to the electrode surface. [Pg.651]

To make an accurate FEP calculation, a good description of the system is required. This means that the parameters for the chosen force field must reproduce the dynamic behaviour of both species correctly. A realistic description of the environment, e.g. size of water box, and the treatment of the solute-solvent interaction energy is also required. The majority of the parameters can usually be taken from the standard atom types of a force field. The electrostatic description of the species at both ends of the perturbation is, however, the key to a good simulation of many systems. This is also the part that usually requires tailoring to the system of interest. Most force fields require atom centered charges obtained by fitting to the molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), usually over the van der Waals surface. Most authors in the studies discussed above used RHF/6-31G or higher methods to obtain the MEP. [Pg.133]

Supercritical water (SCW) presents a unique combination of aqueous and non-aqueous character, thus being able to replace an organic solvent in certain kinds of chemical synthesis. In order to allow for a better understanding of the particular properties of SCW and of its influence on the rate of chemical reactions, molecular dynamics computer simulations were used to determine the free energy of the SN2 substitution reaction of Cl- and CH3C1 in SCW as a function of the reaction coordinate [216]. The free energy surface of this reaction was compared with that for the gas-phase and ambient water (AW) [248], In the gas phase, an ion-dipole complex and a symmetric transition... [Pg.344]

The effect of the solvent upon the breaking of the symmetry of the potential energy surface for proton transfer has a profound consequence for the reaction dynamics for proton transfer. The tunneling of the proton out of the reactant state... [Pg.74]

Transient absorption experiments have shown that all of the major DNA and RNA nucleosides have fluorescence lifetimes of less than one picosecond [2—4], and that covalently modified bases [5], and even individual tautomers [6], differ dramatically in their excited-state dynamics. Femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion studies have also shown that the lowest singlet excited states of monomeric bases, nucleosides, and nucleotides decay by ultrafast internal conversion [7-9]. As discussed elsewhere [2], solvent effects on the fluorescence lifetimes are quite modest, and no evidence has been found to date to support excited-state proton transfer as a decay mechanism. These observations have focused attention on the possibility of internal conversion via one or more conical intersections. Recently, computational studies have succeeded in locating conical intersections on the excited state potential energy surfaces of several isolated nucleobases [10-12]. [Pg.463]

The knowledge of the two-minima energy surface is sufficient theoretically to determine the microscopic and static rate of reaction of a charge transfer in relation to a geometric variation of the molecule. In practice, the experimental study of the charge-transfer reactions in solution leads to a macroscopic reaction rate that characterizes the dynamics of the intramolecular motion of the solute molecule within the environment of the solvent molecules. Stochastic chemical reaction models restricted to the one-dimensional case are commonly used to establish the dynamical description. Therefore, it is of importance to recall (1) the fundamental properties of the stochastic processes under the Markov assumption that found the analysis of the unimolecular reaction dynamics and the Langevin-Fokker-Planck method, (2) the conditions of validity of the well-known Kramers results and their extension to the non-Markovian effects, and (3) the situation of a reaction in the absence of a potential barrier. [Pg.8]

By taking as a reference the calculation in vacuo, the presence of the solvent introduces several complications. In fact, besides the direct effect of the solvent on the solute electronic distribution (which implies changes in the solute properties, i.e. dipole moment, polarizability and higher order responses), it should be taken into account that indirect solvent effects exist, i.e. the solvent reaction field perturbs the molecular potential energy surface (PES). This implies that the molecular geometry of the solute (the PES minima) and vibrational frequencies (the PES curvature around minima in the harmonic approximation) are affected by the presence of a solvating environment. Also, the dynamics of the solvent molecules around the solute (the so-called nonequilibrium effect ) has to be... [Pg.170]

Equation (3.21) shows that the potential of the mean force is an effective potential energy surface created by the solute-solvent interaction. The PMF may be calculated by an explicit treatment of the entire solute-solvent system by molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo methods, or it may be calculated by an implicit treatment of the solvent, such as by a continuum model, which is the subject of this book. A third possibility (discussed at length in Section 3.3.3) is that some solvent molecules are explicit or discrete and others are implicit and represented as a continuous medium. Such a mixed discrete-continuum model may be considered as a special case of a continuum model in which the solute and explicit solvent molecules form a supermolecule or cluster that is embedded in a continuum. In this contribution we will emphasize continuum models (including cluster-continuum models). [Pg.341]

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