Isotope effects associated with tunneling and double proton transfer in the hydrogen bonds of benzoic acid

The isotope effects associated with double proton transfer in the hydrogen bonds of benzoic acid (BA) dimers have been measured using field-cycling (1)H NMR relaxometry and quasielastic neutron scattering. By studying mixed isotope (hydrogen and deuterium) samples, the dynamics of three isotopologues, BA-HH, BA-HD, and BA-DD, have been investigated. Low temperature measurements provide accurate measurements of the incoherent tunneling rate, k(0). This parameter scales accurately with the mass number, m, according to the formula k(0)=(E/m)e(-Fm) providing conclusive evidence that the proton transfer process is a strongly correlated motion of two hydrons. Furthermore, we conclude that the tunneling pathway is the same for the three isotopologue species. Measurements at higher temperatures illuminate the through barrier processes that are mediated via intermediate or excited vibrational states. In parallel with the investigation of proton transfer dynamics, the theoretical and experimental aspects of studying spin-lattice relaxation in single crystals of mixed isotope samples are investigated in depth. Heteronuclear dipolar interactions between (1)H and (2)H isotopes contribute significantly to the overall proton spin-lattice relaxation and it is shown that these must be modeled correctly to obtain accurate values for the proton transfer rates. Since the sample used in the NMR measurements was a single crystal, full account of the orientation dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation with respect to the applied B field was incorporated into the data analysis.