Effect of the gravitational field strength on the rate of chemical reactions

Abstract

The magnitude of the rate of chemical reactions also depends on the position in the gravitational field where a chemical reaction is being carried out. The rate of chemical reaction conducted at a stronger gravitational field, i.e., near the surface of some heavy planet, is slower than the rate of reaction conducted at a weaker gravitational field, i.e., away from the surface of a heavy plant, provided temperature and pressure are kept constant at two positions in the gravitational field. The effect of gravity on the rates of reactions has been shown by formulating the rate constants from almost all types of reaction rate theories, i.e., transition state theory, collision theory, Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus, and Marcus’s theory, in the language of the general theory of relativity. The gravitational transformation of the Boltzmann constant and the energy quantum levels of molecules have been developed quantum mechanically. A gravitational transformation of thermodynamic state functions has been formulated that successfully explains the quasi-equilibrium existing between reactants and the activated complex at different gravitational fields. Gravitational mass dilation has been developed, which explains that at weaker gravitational fields, the transition states possess more kinetic energy to sweep translation on the reaction coordinate, resulting in the faster conversion of reactants into products. The gravitational transformation of the half-life equation shows gravitational time dilation for the half-life period of chemical reactions and thus renders the general theory of relativity and the present theory in accord with each other.