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How Fast is a Fast Equilibrium? A New View of Reversible Reactions
Author(s) -
Baleizão Carlos,
BerberanSantos Mário N.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.200800350
Subject(s) - kinetics , chemistry , excited state , thermodynamics , förster resonance energy transfer , excimer , kinetic energy , monomer , proton , fluorescence , thermodynamic equilibrium , chemical physics , atomic physics , organic chemistry , physics , polymer , quantum mechanics
Reversible reactions are described in terms of kinetic cycles. From this description, two useful parameters arise: 1) average cycle duration and 2) average number of cycles. The latter applies to cycles with at least one unstable species. These parameters allow answering the question “How fast is a fast equilibrium?” in absolute and in relative terms, respectively. The general interest of the approach is demonstrated by application to reactions drawn from several areas: Acid–base equilibria, enzyme kinetics, excited‐state proton transfer, thermally activated delayed fluorescence, monomer–excimer kinetics and homo‐FRET.