Double proton transfer in the complex of acetic acid with methanol: Theory versus experiment
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
To test the approximate instanton approach to intermolecular proton-transfer dynamics, we report multidimensional ab initio bimolecular rate constants of HH, HD, and DD exchange in the complex of acetic acid with methanol in tetrahydrofuran-d8, and compare them with the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) experiments of Gerritzen and Limbach. The bimolecular rate constants are evaluated as products of the exchange rates and the equilibrium rate constants of complex formation in solution. The two molecules form hydrogen-bond bridges and the exchange occurs via concerted transfer of two protons. The dynamics of this transfer is evaluated in the complete space of 36 vibrational degrees of freedom. The geometries of the two isolated molecules, the complex, and the transition states corresponding to double proton transfer are fully optimized at QCISD (quadratic configuration interaction including single and double substitutions) level of theory, and the normal-mode frequencies are calculated at MP2 (Møller-Plesset perturbation theory of second order) level with the 6-31G (d,p) basis set. The presence of the solvent is taken into account via single-point calculations over the gas phase geometries with the PCM (polarized continuum model). The proton exchange rate constants, calculated with the instanton method, show the effect of the structure and strength of the hydrogen bonds, reflected in the coupling between the tunneling motion and the other vibrations of the complex. Comparison with experiment, which shows substantial kinetic isotopic effects (KIE), indicates that tunneling prevails over classic exchange for the whole temperature range of observation. The unusual behavior of the experimental KIE upon single and double deuterium substitution is well reproduced and is related to the synchronicity of two-atom tunneling.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it