Preston RJ, Gelin MF, Kosov DS. First-passage time theory of activated rate chemical processes in electronic molecular junctions.
J Chem Phys 2021;
154:114108. [PMID:
33752339 DOI:
10.1063/5.0045652]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Confined nanoscale spaces, electric fields, and tunneling currents make the molecular electronic junction an experimental device for the discovery of new out-of-equilibrium chemical reactions. Reaction-rate theory for current-activated chemical reactions is developed by combining the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function treatment of electrons, Fokker-Planck description of the reaction coordinate, and Kramers first-passage time calculations. The nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF) provide an adiabatic potential as well as a diffusion coefficient and temperature with local dependence on the reaction coordinate. Van Kampen's Fokker-Planck equation, which describes a Brownian particle moving in an external potential in an inhomogeneous medium with a position-dependent friction and diffusion coefficient, is used to obtain an analytic expression for the first-passage time. The theory is applied to several transport scenarios: a molecular junction with a single reaction coordinate dependent molecular orbital and a model diatomic molecular junction. We demonstrate the natural emergence of Landauer's blowtorch effect as a result of the interplay between the configuration dependent viscosity and diffusion coefficients. The resultant localized heating in conjunction with the bond-deformation due to current-induced forces is shown to be the determining factors when considering chemical reaction rates, each of which results from highly tunable parameters within the system.
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