Extension of Hopfield’s Electron Transfer Model To Accommodate Site–Site Correlation

Extension of the Förster analogue for the ET rate constant (based on virtual intermediate electron detachment or attachment states) with inclusion of site-site correlation due to coulomb terms associated with solvent reorganization energy and the driving force, has been developed and illustrated for a simple three-state, two-mode model. The model is applicable to charge separation (CS), recombination (CR), and shift (CSh) ET processes, with or without an intervening bridge. The model provides a unified perspective on the role of virtual intermediate states in accounting for the thermal Franck-Condon weighted density of states (FCWD), the gaps controlling superexchange coupling, and mean absolute redox potentials, with full accommodation of site-site coulomb interactions. Two types of correlation have been analyzed: aside from the site-site correlation due to coulomb interactions, we have emphasized the intrinsic "nonorthogonality" which generally pertains to reaction coordinates (RCs) for different ET processes involving multiple electronic states, as may be expressed by suitably defined direction cosines (cos(θ)). A pair of RCs may be nonorthogonal even when the site-site coulomb correlations are absent. While different RCs are linearly independent in the mathematical sense for all θ ≠ 0°, they are independent in the sense of being "uncorrelated" only in the limit of orthogonality (θ = 90°). Application to more than two coordinates is straightforward and may include both discrete and continuum contributions.