Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.113, No.9, 2800-2804, 2009
Solvation Dynamics in Polar Solvents Studied by Means of RISM/Mode-Coupling Theory
The extended reference interaction site model (RISM) theory coupled with the generalized Langevin/mode-coupling theory (MCT) is applied to the investigation of solvation dynamics in polar solvents. The RISM/MCT framework used in this paper significantly upgrades the previous report by Nishiyama and co-workers [Nishiyama, K.; et al. J. Chem. Phys. 2003, 118, 2279.] for the calculation of the solvation response function, S-S(t). This function is experimentally observable from dynamic Stokes shift measurements, for example. S-S(t) obtained by RISM/MCT relaxes with an initial Gaussian decay followed by damped oscillation, which is in accordance with experimental results or molecular dynamics simulations published elsewhere. S-S(t) is then decoupled into the acoustic and optical modes of solvent, which indicate the translational and rotational motions of solvent, respectively. The majority (>90%) of S-S(t) is explained by the optical mode, whereas the slower acoustic mode also plays an important role. Resultingly, RISM/MCT is shown to be an appropriate theoretical methodology to capture a molecular view of solvation dynamics, without assuming any empirical parameters.