Chemical transformations involving the diffusion of reactants and subsequent chemical fixation steps are generally termed "diffusion-influenced reactions" (DIR). Virtually all biochemical processes in living media can be counted among them, together with those occurring in an ever-growing number of emerging nano-technologies. The role of the environment's geometry (obstacles, compartmentalization) and distributed reactivity (competitive reactants, traps) is key in modulating the rate constants of DIRs, and is therefore a prime design parameter. Yet, it is a formidable challenge to build a comprehensive theory that is able to describe the environment's "reactive geometry". Here we show that such a theory can be built by unfolding this many-body problem through addition theorems for special functions. Our method is powerful and general and allows one to study a given DIR reaction occurring in arbitrary "reactive landscapes", made of multiple spherical boundaries of given size and reactivity. Importantly, ready-to-use analytical formulas can be derived easily in most cases.

Theory of diffusion-influenced reactions in complex geometries / Galanti, Marta; Fanelli, Duccio; Traytak, Sergey D.; Piazza, Francesco. - In: PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS. - ISSN 1463-9076. - STAMPA. - 18:(2016), pp. 15950-15954. [10.1039/c6cp01147k]

Theory of diffusion-influenced reactions in complex geometries

GALANTI, MARTA;FANELLI, DUCCIO;PIAZZA, FRANCESCO
2016

Abstract

Chemical transformations involving the diffusion of reactants and subsequent chemical fixation steps are generally termed "diffusion-influenced reactions" (DIR). Virtually all biochemical processes in living media can be counted among them, together with those occurring in an ever-growing number of emerging nano-technologies. The role of the environment's geometry (obstacles, compartmentalization) and distributed reactivity (competitive reactants, traps) is key in modulating the rate constants of DIRs, and is therefore a prime design parameter. Yet, it is a formidable challenge to build a comprehensive theory that is able to describe the environment's "reactive geometry". Here we show that such a theory can be built by unfolding this many-body problem through addition theorems for special functions. Our method is powerful and general and allows one to study a given DIR reaction occurring in arbitrary "reactive landscapes", made of multiple spherical boundaries of given size and reactivity. Importantly, ready-to-use analytical formulas can be derived easily in most cases.
2016
18
15950
15954
Galanti, Marta; Fanelli, Duccio; Traytak, Sergey D.; Piazza, Francesco
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/1057549
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