Molecular Energy Relations From Chemical Kinetics

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.

Robert W. Finkel · 2007