470—The proton pump at work: Part I. The basic concept of excess proton/defect proton translocation

The Nagle-Morowitz proton pump, which is based on proton transport in water and ice, is shown to be inapplicable to weakly H-bonded proton transport systems. It is demonstrated that in weakly or non H-bonded systems protons can migrate either as excess protons H using a high-lying proton conduction band or as defect protons H′ using intermediate energy levels. As H? the protons act as positive charge carriers endowed with a very high mobility. As H′ they act as negative charge carriers. The H′ transport mechanism involves thermally activated proton tunneling. Owing to the very large mobility differences between H? and H′, > 10⁶, very high potentials can be self-generated in any situation which creates a concentration gradient. Proton conductivity data on inorganic model compounds are presented. Applying these results to proton transport across biomembranes, transmembrane potentials U_m, acidification Δ pH and transient phenomena can be explained as result of H? and H′ translocation.