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A nonmonotonic dependence of standard rate constant on reorganization energy for heterogeneous electron transfer
Weilin Xu1, Songtao Li, Xiaochun Zhou
1State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
In the present work a nonmonotonic dependence of standard rate constant (k(0)) on reorganization energy (lambda) was discovered qualitatively from electron transfer (Marcus-Hush-Levich) theory for heterogeneous electron transfer processes on electrode surface. It was found that the nonmonotonic dependence of k(0) on lambda is another result, besides the disappearance of the famous Marcus inverted region, coming from the continuum of electronic states in electrode: with the increase of lambda, the states for both Process I and Process II ET processes all vary from nonadiabatic to adiabatic state continuously, and the lambda dependence of k(0) for Process I is monotonic thoroughly, while for Process II on electrode surface the lambda dependence of k(0) could show a nonmonotonicity.
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