Proton dynamics and the tautomerization potential in benzoic acid crystals

Abstract

Abstract Two‐proton exchange along the two hydrogen bonds mediates the tautomerization in benzoic acid (BA) dimers. Optical spectroscopy and quasi‐elastic neutron scattering (QENS) have been employed to characterize the proton dynamics in doped and pure BA crystals. The proton motion in BA is governed by a multidimensional potential energy surface (PES), and recent theoretical methods, based on a perturbative instanton approach, to describe tunneling in such PES are presented. This PES is also modulated by the interaction with the solid state environment as manifest by the energy difference between the otherwise equivalent tautomers. The value of this energy difference in pure crystals is an important parameter in the data analysis of NMR and QENS. Both methods give mutually consistent values that differ significantly from earlier determinations via infrared and 13 C NMR as well as a recent evaluation using neutron diffraction data. The energy difference between tautomers is altered for dimers in the vicinity of impurity molecules. This is the basis for the optical spectroscopic methods, which enable a direct and accurate determination of the level structure and tautomerization dynamics of these coupled dimers in the limit of very low temperatures, where coherent tunneling is also observed in some cases. Measurements with new impurity molecules make it possible to monitor simultaneously at least 10 different tautomer configurations and prove that the influence of the probe molecules on the proton dynamics is small. The transition to thermally activated barrier crossing at higher temperatures is accessed via the width of the QENS line that is determined by the inverse of the proton correlation time. The quantitative data analysis of the scattered intensity as a function of temperature and scattering angle yields the energy difference, A , between the two wells ( A / k B =90+20 K), the length (0.686 Å), and direction of the proton jump vector. These measurements complement NMR investigations presented in the preceding paper.