Electron correlation effects in the adiabatic charge transfer reactions at the metal/polar liquid interface

New simple expressions for average number of electrons in the valence orbital of a reacting ion and the charge susceptibility are obtained that allow one to calculate adiabatic free energy surfaces (AFES) and corresponding kinetic regime diagrams (KRD) for adiabatic processes of electron transfer from the ion, located in a polar liquid, to a metal within the framework of the exactly solvable (in the limit T-->0) model of the metal with the infinitely wide conduction band. This model represents one of limiting cases of the Anderson model that may be applied to s-p metals. Unlike previous studies of the adiabatic reactions in the model of the metal with the infinitely wide conduction band, the present work takes into account the electron-electron correlation effects in an exact manner. General results are illustrated with KRD which determine the regions of the physical parameters of the system corresponding to various types of electron transfer processes. AFES are calculated for some typical parameters sets. The exact AFES are compared with those calculated within the Hartree-Fock approximation. It is shown that the correlation effects are of importance and results not only in a considerable decrease of the activation free energy but also to qualitatively different shapes of AFES in some regions of the system parameters. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.