Extensions of the Melander–Westheimer Postulate: Isotope Effects in Reactions with Equilibrium Values Far from Unity

Abstract The symmetric dependence of experimental primary kinetic isotope effects on the free energy change, obtained for reaction series with zero equilibrium isotope effects, can be inverted to obtain the free energy profile along the reaction coordinate. Trends in the kinetic isotope effects for the general case of non‐vanishing equilibrium effects can be understood by an extension of the same theory. Comparison is made with experiments for reactions of halogen atoms with hydrogen/deuterium molecules.