Understanding and controlling proton transfer in water
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- uploaded August 8, 2025
Determining the key mechanisms underlying solvent-mediated proton transfer is essential for the understanding acidbase reactions. Femtosecond spectroscopic experiments and quantum chemical molecular dynamics calculations have shown the characteristic femtosecond to picosecond time scales for elementary proton transfer events. Until now experimental studies have determined possible proton transfer pathways without revealing the role of electronic structural changes of acids and bases. We aim to decipher the electronic structural dynamics of the frontier orbitals of imidazole as a base model system using femtosecond N K-edge RIXS, using a photoacid to optically trigger the reaction. This will enable us to indentify how electronic structural changes steer the proton to follow particular pathways and the possible outcome of the reaction. Our findings will contribute to refine the current understanding of proton transfer in e.g. hydrogen fuel cells and transmembrane protein proton pumps.
