English

Chemical Reactions under Nanoconfinement: Unravelling Equilibrium Constant Equations

Chemical Physics 2020-07-15 v2

Abstract

Equilibrium Constant Differential Equations (ECDE) are derived for several nanoconfined elemental bimolecular reactions in the frameworks of statistical mechanics and the ideal gas model. The ECDEs complement the well-known equilibrium-constant ordinary equations that are used for macroscopic systems. Solving the ECDE numerically or analytically furnishes the average reaction extent, as well as its variance and skewness. This original theoretical-computational methodology fills the gap in studies of nanochemical equilibrium providing a consistent and convenient alternative to derivations based on direct employment of the canonical partition-functions. Whereas the latter become more complex and time-consuming with increased number of molecules, the ECDE-based computations are equally efficient for small as well as large numbers of nanoconfined reacting molecules. The ECDE methodology introduced here is confirmed by a complete agreement with partition-function computations. In addition, the new approach is applied to nanoconfined adsorption.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.00651,
  title  = {Chemical Reactions under Nanoconfinement: Unravelling Equilibrium Constant Equations},
  author = {Leonid Rubinovich and Micha Polak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.00651},
  year   = {2020}
}