Hydrogen-pair tunnelling frequency

Biezo, G, J. Ladik, and J. Gergely Approximate calculation of the tunnelling frequencies of the proton in the N-H---0 hydrogen bond of the nucleotide base pairs. Physics Letters 13, 317 (1964). 

We now consider hydrogen transfer reactions between the excited impurity molecules and the neighboring host molecules in crystals. Prass et al. [1988, 1989] and Steidl et al. [1988] studied the abstraction of an hydrogen atom from fluorene by an impurity acridine molecule in its lowest triplet state. The fluorene molecule is oriented in a favorable position for the transfer (Figure 6.18). The radical pair thus formed is deactivated by the reverse transition. H atom abstraction by acridine molecules competes with the radiative deactivation (phosphorescence) of the 3T state, and the temperature dependence of transfer rate constant is inferred from the kinetic measurements in the range 33-143 K. Below 72 K, k(T) is described by Eq. (2.30) with n = 1, while at T>70K the Arrhenius law holds with the apparent activation energy of 0.33 kcal/mol (120 cm-1). The value of a corresponds to the thermal excitation of the symmetric vibration that is observed in the Raman spectrum of the host crystal. The shift in its frequency after deuteration shows that this is a libration i.e., the tunneling is enhanced by hindered molecular rotation in crystal. 

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