Kinetics of catalytic reactions occurring in a small reaction volume

Abstract

We investigate the kinetics of diffusion-influenced catalytic reactions occurring in small reaction volume. From a simple exact model study, we find that the reaction rate coefficient decreases with the size of reaction volume. The explicit expression for the average reaction rate constant is presented, which can be regarded as a generalization of well-known Collins-Kimball rate constant into the reactions occurring in a small reaction volume. It turns out that the traditional diffusion influenced reaction dynamics is followed by a single exponential relaxation phase with a rate constant dependent on the reaction volume for the catalytic reactions occurring in small reaction volumes.