Tunnelling in carbonic acid

• Published in: Chemical Communications
• Main Authors: Wagner, J. Philipp, Reisenauer, Hans Peter, Hirvonen, Viivi, Wu, Chia-Hua, Tyberg, Joseph L., Allen, Wesley D., Schreiner, Peter R.
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) 2016
• Subjects: Materials Chemistry; Metals and Alloys; Surfaces, Coatings and Films; General Chemistry; Ceramics and Composites; Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials; Catalysis; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c6cc01756h; http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2016/CC/C6CC01756H

The cis , trans -conformer of carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3 ), generated by near-infrared radiation, undergoes an unreported quantum mechanical tunnelling rotamerization with half-lives in cryogenic matrices of 4–20 h, depending on temperature and host material.