NONEQUILIBRIUM SOLVATION IN CHEMICAL-REACTIONS .3. APPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY

The authors' theory of solvent influence on the dynamics of heavy particle charge transfer reactions in polar solvents (Chem. Phys. 164 (1992) 331, 341) is applied to a model reaction to study the reaction rate dependence on the solvent response. The goal of the paper is to examine the dependence of the rate constant on (a) the solvent reorganization rate, and (b) the solvent viscosity. It is shown that the dependence is sensitive to the reactant-solvent coupling strength which can be classified as either strong or weak, depending on the magnitude of a certain parameter. In the case of weak coupling several unconventional features in the rate constant behavior are demonstrated. For example, activation energy surprisingly depends on the solvent reorganization rate and viscosity.