2007/06/04 by Robert W. Finkel, Finkel, Robert W.
Chemistry · Engineering · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0706.0552
openalex publication_date 2007/06/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Since molecular energy transformations are responsible for chemical reaction rates at the most fundamental level, chemical kinetics should provide some information about molecular energies. This is the premise and objective of this note. We describe a Hamiltonian formulation for kinetic rate equations where the concentrations are the generalized coordinates and the conjugate momenta are simply related to individual average molecular energies. Simple examples are presented and the resulting energy relations naturally include non-equilibrium reactions. An analysis predicts the reasonable outcome that thermal agitation of a composite molecule increases its rate of dissociation.