The Grotthuss Mechanism
Noam Agmon
Suggested mechanisms for proton mobility are confronted with experimental
findings and quantum mechanical calculations, indicating that no model is
consistent with the existing data. It is suggested that the molecular
mechanism behind prototropic mobility involves a periodic series of
isomerizations between H9O4+
and H5O2+,
the first triggered by hydrogen-bond
cleavage of a second-shell water molecule and the second by the reverse,
hydrogen-bond formation process.
