On the length dependence of bridge-mediated electron transfer reactions

Abstract Bridge-mediated nonadiabatic donor–acceptor (D–A) electron transfer (ET) is studied for the case of a regular molecular bridge of N identical units. It is shown that the multi-exponential ET kinetics reduces to a single-exponential transfer if, and only if, the integral population of the bridge remains small (less than 10 −2 ). An analytical expression for the overall D–A ET rate is derived and the necessary and sufficient conditions are formulated at which the rate is given as a sum of a superexchange and a sequential contribution. To describe experimental data on the N-dependence of ET reactions an approximate form of the overall transfer rate is derived. This expression is used to reproduce experimental data on distant ET through polyproline chains. Finally it is noted that the obtained analytical results can also be used for the description of more complex two-electron transfer reactions if the latter comprises separate single-electron pathways.