Abstract
The diffusion of molecules in complex systems such as glasses and cell cytoplasm is slow, heterogeneous, and sometimes nonergodic. The effects of such intriguing diffusion on the kinetics of chemical and biological reactions remain elusive. In this Letter, we report that the kinetics of the polymer loop formation reaction in a Kob-Andersen (KA) glass forming liquid is influenced significantly by the dynamic heterogeneity. The diffusion coefficient of a KA liquid deviates from the Stokes-Einstein relation at low temperatures and shows a fractional dependence on the solvent viscosity , i.e., with . The dynamic heterogeneity of a KA liquid affects the rate constant of the loop formation and leads to the identical fractional dependence of on with and , contrary to reactions in dynamically homogeneous solutions where .
- Received 13 January 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.087801
© 2017 American Physical Society