General theory of diffusion-controlled reactions

Abstract

A formal mathematical description of diffusion-controlled bimolecular reactions is presented. The theory is completely general with respect to the kinds of reaction processes that may be considered. Besides the presentation of the general formalism, the paper also contains several examples illustrating the application of the theory to a simple many-particule system for simple catalytic bimolecular reactions, including fluorescence quenching. The manner in which approximate solutions may be obtained is also outlined.