Article
Article
Marcus equation
Article By:
Sutin, Norman Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757470
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Rudolph A. Marcus developed a theory for treating the rates of outer-sphere electron-transfer reactions. In outer-sphere reactions an electron is transferred from a donor to an acceptor without any chemical bonds being made or broken. (Electron-transfer reactions in which bonds are made or broken are referred to as inner-sphere reactions.) Marcus derived several useful expressions, one of which has come to be known as the Marcus cross-relation or the Marcus equation. It is widely used for correlating and predicting electron-transfer rates. For contributions to the understanding of electron-transfer reactions, Marcus received the 1992 Nobel prize in chemistry.
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