DOI 10.1515/jnet-2015-0059 Ë J. Non-Equilib. Thermodyn. 2015; 40 (4):275–281 Research Article J. Miguel Rubí and Agustin Pérez-Madrid* Far-from-equilibrium kinetic processes Abstract: We analyze the kinetics of activated processes that take place under far-from-equilibrium condi- tions, when the system is subjected to external driving forces or gradients or at high values of anities. We use mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics to show that when a force is applied, the reaction rate de- pends on the force. In the case of a chemical reaction at high anity values, the reaction rate is no longer constant but depends on anity, which implies that the law of mass action is no longer valid. This result is in good agreement with the kinetic theory of reacting gases, which uses a Chapman–Enskog expansion of the probability distribution. Keywords: Far-from-equilibrium, kinetic processes, mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics ËË J. Miguel Rubí: Departament de Física Fonamental, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, e-mail:
[email protected] *Corresponding author: Agustin Pérez-Madrid: Departament de Física Fonamental, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, e-mail:
[email protected] 1 Introduction Processes that need a minimum amount of energy to proceed are usually referred to as activated processes, which in many cases take place under the inuence of external driving forces. The presence of these forces modies the free energy barrier that the system has to surmount, which leads to changes in activation rates.