ABSTRACT
Electron transfer reactions represent an extremely wide class of chemical processes in solution. There is a great variety of chemical mechanisms of these reactions. This chapter discusses the major part of the attention will be paid to the physical mechanism of the elementary reaction steps. Reactions in which electron exchange between the reactants proceeds without the formation of a chemical complex and without exchange of heavy species are usually denoted as outer-sphere reactions. Translational motion of the ions is always important for electron transfer. In liquids the translational and rotational diffusion of the reactants is the slowest kind of heavy particle motion. In relation to the assumption about the linearity of the dielectric it is necessary to discuss the effects of dielectric saturation near the reacting ions. Dielectric saturation arises in strong electric fields and it is related to nonlinear properties of the dielectric..
