Energy Gap Law of Electron Transfer in Nonpolar Solvents

Abstract

We investigate the energy gap law of electron transfer in nonpolar solvents for charge separation and charge recombination reactions. In polar solvents, the reaction coordinate is given in terms of the electrostatic potentials from solvent permanent dipoles at solutes. In nonpolar solvents, the energy fluctuation due to solvent polarization is absent, but the energy of the ion pair state changes significantly with the distance between the ions as a result of the unscreened strong Coulomb potential. The electron transfer occurs when the final state energy coincides with the initial state energy. For charge separation reactions, the initial state is a neutral pair state, and its energy changes little with the distance between the reactants, whereas the final state is an ion pair state and its energy changes significantly with the mutual distance; for charge recombination reactions, vice versa. We show that the energy gap law of electron-transfer rates in nonpolar solvents significantly depends on the type of electron transfer.