Thermodynamic equilibrium in strong electric fields and field chemistry consequences

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Abstract
Strong enough electric fields - especially of the order of 108 to 109 V/cm — when applied to a chemically reactive system may shift the thermodynamic equilibria in a remarkable way. Even inversion of the normal equilibrium situations can occasionally occur. Reaction kinetics may also be influenced by fields of this order, not only on account of the systems altered equilibrium distance, or through bond polarities of those bonds which participate in the reaction, but also by a remarkable decrease of the activation energy. This latter is chemical acceleration. By an almost classical calculation, the equilibrium variation and the acceleration of the reaction rates can be determined as a function of the electric field strength. The theoretical results have been compared with experiment and reasonably good correlation was found

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