Influence of molecular rebinding on the reaction rate of complex formation

Abstract

We simulated Brownian diffusion and reaction–diffusion processes to study the influence of molecular rebinding on the reaction rates of bimolecular reactions. We found that the number of rebinding events, N_reb, is proportional to the target's size and inversely proportional to the diffusion coefficient D and simulation time-step Δt. We found the proportionality constant close to π^−1/2. We confirmed that N_reb is defined as a ratio of the activation-limited rate constant k_a to the diffusion-limited rate constant, k_D. We provide the formula describing the reactivity coefficient κ, modelling the transient-native complex transition for the activation-controlled reaction rates. We show that κ is proportional to (D/Δt)^1/2. Finally, we apply our rebinding-including reaction rate model to the real reactions of photoacid dissociation and protein association. Based on literature data for both types of reactions, we found the Δt time-scale. We show that for the photodissociation of a proton, the Δt is equal to 171 ± 18 fs and the average number of rebinding events is approximately equal to 40. For proteins, Δt is of the order of 100 ps with around 20 rebinding events. In both cases the timescale is similar to the timescale of fluctuation of the solvent molecules surrounding the reactants; vibrations and bending in the case of photoacid dissociation and diffusional motion for proteins.