Communication: Resonance reaction in diffusion-influenced bimolecular reactions

Area of Science:

• Chemical Kinetics
• Statistical Mechanics
• Theoretical Chemistry

Background:

• Bimolecular reaction rates are crucial in many chemical and biological processes.
• Understanding reaction dynamics in complex systems with fluctuating potentials is challenging.
• Existing models often assume independent kinetic processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of stochastically fluctuating step-barrier potentials on reaction rates.
• To identify novel reaction behaviors and their underlying mechanisms.
• To assess the validity of established kinetic laws in fluctuating environments.

Main Methods:

• Exact analytical theory was employed to model the system.
• Stochastic simulations were performed to validate theoretical predictions.
• The influence of fluctuation decay length and system size was analyzed.

Main Results:

• A new
• resonant reaction
• behavior was observed, leading to rate enhancement.
• Rate enhancement occurs when the fluctuation decay length is comparable to the system size.
• The standard reciprocal additivity law for diffusion and surface reaction rates is violated near resonance due to coupled kinetic processes.

Conclusions:

• Dynamical coupling of kinetic processes in fluctuating potentials can lead to significant deviations from standard theories.
• The observed resonant reaction phenomenon has implications for interpreting reaction kinetics in complex biological and chemical systems.
• Findings may necessitate revised models for biomolecular association and catalysis involving fluctuating environments.