Further Developments in Electron Transfer

The inverted region in electron transfer reactions is studied for the reaction of electronically-excited ruthenium(II) tris-bipyridyl ions with various metal(III) tris-bipyridyl complexes. Numerical calculations for the diffusion-reaction equation are summarized for the case where electron transfer occurs over a range of distances. Comparison is made with the experimental data and with a simple approximation. The analysis reveals some of the factors which can cause a flattening of the ln k_(obs) versus ΔG^O curve in the inverted region. Ways of improving the chance of observing the effect are discussed.