Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071, Tianjin, China.
Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 12;10(1):1170. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09154-5.
Electron-induced proton transfer depicts the proton motion coupled with the attachment of a low-energy electron to a molecule, which helps to understand copious fundamental chemical processes. Intramolecular electron-induced proton transfer is a similar process that occurs within a single molecule. To date, there is only one known intramolecular example, to the best of our knowledge. By studying the 10-hydroxybenzo[h]quinoline and 8-hydroxyquinoline molecules using anion photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory, and by theoretical screening of six other molecules, here we show the intramolecular electron-induced proton transfer capability of a long list of molecules that meanwhile have the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer property. Careful examination of the intrinsic electronic signatures of these molecules reveals that these two distinct processes should occur to the same category of molecules. Intramolecular electron-induced proton transfer could have potential applications such as molecular devices that are responsive to electrons or current.
电子诱导质子转移描绘了质子运动与低能电子附着到分子的耦合，这有助于理解大量的基本化学过程。分子内电子诱导质子转移是在单个分子内发生的类似过程。据我们所知，到目前为止，只有一个已知的分子内实例。通过使用阴离子光电电子能谱和密度泛函理论研究 10-羟基苯并[h]喹啉和 8-羟基喹啉分子，并通过对其他六个分子的理论筛选，我们在这里展示了具有激发态分子内质子转移性质的大量分子的分子内电子诱导质子转移能力。仔细检查这些分子的固有电子特征表明，这两个不同的过程应该发生在同一类分子中。分子内电子诱导质子转移可能具有应用潜力，例如对电子或电流有响应的分子器件。
