Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications

摘要

Hydrogen tunneling at room temperature has finally been observed spectroscopically by researchers led by Mathias Schäfer, Jos Oomens, Albrecht Berkessel, and Anthony Meijer (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b10348). H-tunneling is a less common phenomenon than its well-known counterpart, electron tunneling. Tunneling generally involves a particle that penetrates or "tunnels" through a barrier to an adjacent site if the two sites are close enough, typically separated only by angstroms. This phenomenon can affect the kinetic rates and selectivities of chemical reactions that are defined by classical barriers. H-tunneling specifically plays a role in the chemical reactivity of a wide variety of reactions from astrochemistry and biochemistry to catalysis.