Dynamic Solvent Effect on Ultrafast Charge Recombination Kinetics in Excited Donor-Acceptor Complexes.

Manifestation of the dynamic solvent effect (DSE) on the charge recombination (CR) kinetics of photoexcited donor-acceptor complexes in polar solvents has been investigated within the framework of the multichannel stochastic model. The model takes into account the reorganization of both the solvent and a number of intramolecular high-frequency vibration modes as well as their relaxation. The non-Markovian solvent dynamics is described in terms of two relaxation modes. The similarities and differences inherent to ultrafast charge transfer reactions occurring in the nonequilibrium and thermal regimes have been identified. The most important differences are as follows: (1) the DSE is strong in the area of weak exergonicity and is weak in the area of strong exergonicity for thermal reactions, whereas for the nonequilibrium reactions, the regions of strong and weak DSEs are reversed; (2) an increase in the electronic coupling value results in a decrease in the magnitude of DSE for nonequilibrium electron transfer and in its increase for the thermal reactions; and (3) the two-staged regime most clearly manifests if the reorganization energy of the relaxation modes noticeably exceeds the CR free-energy gap. With an increase in electronic coupling, the kinetics approaches the exponential regime because in the limit of strong electronic coupling, the reaction includes only single, nonequilibrium, stage.