PHENOMENOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF KINETICS WITH TIME-DEPENDENT SPECIFIC REACTION-RATES

Specific reaction rates depend on time for reactions proceeding on tim e scales comparable to or shorter than those of internal rearrangement s in the reaction system renewing the environment of reactants, For a time-dependent specific reaction rate, k(t), using the concept of ener gy profile along the reaction path, one finds the potential energy bar rier separating reactants from products to evolve in time during the r eaction course. This evolution is described in terms of a distribution function related directly to the distribution function of logarithms of lifetimes calculable from the kinetic equations with k(t), This adv anced approach is compared with that in which the kinetic equations wi th k(t) are interpreted in terms of superposition of classical reactio n patterns.