Brownian motors: noisy transport far from equilibrium

Formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their growth to soot—a review of chemical reaction pathways

Since the late 1940s, the field of electron transfer processes has grown enormously, both in chemistry and biology. The development of the field, experimentally and theoretically, as well as its relation to the study of other kinds of chemical reactions, presents to us an intriguing history, one in which many threads have been brought together. In this lecture, some history, recent trends, and my own involvement in this research are described.

Electron Transfer Reactions in Chemistry: Theory and Experiment (Nobel Lecture)

The time correlation function (tcf) formulas for rate constants κ derived via the stable states picture (SSP) of chemical reactions are applied to a wide variety (a–d) of gas and solution phase reactionmodels. (a) For gas phase bimolecular reactions, we show that the flux tcf governing κ corresponds to standard numerical trajectory calculation methods. Alternate formulas for κ are derived which focus on saddle point surfaces, thus increasing computational efficiency. Advantages of the SSP formulas for κ are discussed. (b) For gas phase unimolecular reactions, simple results for κ are found in both the strong and weak coupling collision limits; the often ignored role of product stabilization is exposed for reversible isomerizations. The SSP results correct some standard weak coupling rate constant results by as much as 50%. (c) For barrier crossing reactions in solution, we evaluate κ for a generalized (non‐Markovian) Langevin description of the dynamics. For several realistic models of time dependent friction, κ differs dramatically from the popular Kramers constant friction predictions; this has important implications for the validity of transition state theory. (d) For solutionreactions heavily influenced by spatial diffusion, we show that the SSP isolates short range reaction dynamics of interest and includes important barrier region effects in structural isomerizations often missed in standard descriptions.

The stable states picture of chemical reactions. II. Rate constants for condensed and gas phase reaction models

The fragmentation pathways of protonated peptides are reviewed in the present paper paying special attention to classification of the known fragmentation channels into a simple hierarchy defined according to the chemistry involved. It is shown that the 'mobile proton' model of peptide fragmentation can be used to understand the MS/MS spectra of protonated peptides only in a qualitative manner rationalizing differences observed for low-energy collision induced dissociation of peptide ions having or lacking a mobile proton. To overcome this limitation, a deeper understanding of the dissociation chemistry of protonated peptides is needed. To this end use of the 'pathways in competition' (PIC) model that involves a detailed energetic and kinetic characterization of the major peptide fragmentation pathways (PFPs) is proposed. The known PFPs are described in detail including all the pre-dissociation, dissociation, and post-dissociation events. It is our hope that studies to further extend PIC will lead to semi-quantative understanding of the MS/MS spectra of protonated peptides which could be used to develop refined bioinformatics algorithms for MS/MS based proteomics. Experimental and computational data on the fragmentation of protonated peptides are reevaluated from the point of view of the PIC model considering the mechanism, energetics, and kinetics of the major PFPs. Evidence proving semi-quantitative predictability of some of the ion intensity relationships (IIRs) of the MS/MS spectra of protonated peptides is presented.

D. C. Tardy

Papers

Theory of Unimolecular Reactions