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The activated complex is an arrangement of atoms in an arbitrary region near the saddle point of a potential energy surface. [1] The region represents not one defined state, but a range of unstable configurations that a collection of atoms pass through between the reactants and products of a reaction.
The equation follows from the transition state theory, also known as activated-complex theory. If one assumes a constant enthalpy of activation and constant entropy of activation, the Eyring equation is similar to the empirical Arrhenius equation , despite the Arrhenius equation being empirical and the Eyring equation based on statistical ...
Rates of reaction can be studied by examining activated complexes near the saddle point of a potential energy surface. The details of how these complexes are formed are not important. The saddle point itself is called the transition state. The activated complexes are in a special equilibrium (quasi-equilibrium) with the reactant molecules.
The concept of a transition state has been important in many theories of the rates at which chemical reactions occur. This started with the transition state theory (also referred to as the activated complex theory), developed independently in 1935 by Eyring, Evans and Polanyi, and introduced basic concepts in chemical kinetics that are still used today.
A chain reaction is an example of a complex mechanism, in which the propagation steps form a closed cycle. In a chain reaction, the intermediate produced in one step generates an intermediate in another step. Intermediates are called chain carriers. Sometimes, the chain carriers are radicals, they can be ions as well.
In simplest terms, a potential energy surface or PES is a mathematical or graphical representation of the relation between energy of a molecule and its geometry. The methods for describing the potential energy are broken down into a classical mechanics interpretation (molecular mechanics) and a quantum mechanical interpretation.
Diagram of a catalytic reaction, showing the energy level as a function of the reaction coordinate. For a catalyzed reaction, the activation energy is lower.. In chemistry, a reaction coordinate [1] is an abstract one-dimensional coordinate chosen to represent progress along a reaction pathway.
In chemical kinetics, the entropy of activation of a reaction is one of the two parameters (along with the enthalpy of activation) that are typically obtained from the temperature dependence of a reaction rate constant, when these data are analyzed using the Eyring equation of the transition state theory.