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In chemistry, hydronium ( hydroxonium in traditional British English) is the cation , also written as , the type of oxonium ion produced by protonation of water. It is often viewed as the positive ion present when an Arrhenius acid is dissolved in water, as Arrhenius acid in solution give up a proton (a positive hydrogen ion, ) to the surrounding water molecules (). In fact, acids must be surrounded by more than a single water molecule in order to ionize, yielding aqueous and conjugate base.
Three main structures for the aqueous proton have garnered experimental support:
Spectroscopic evidence from well-defined IR spectra overwhelmingly supports the Stoyanov cation as the predominant form. For this reason, it has been suggested that wherever possible, the symbol H+(aq) should be used instead of the hydronium ion.
where M = mol/L. The concentration of hydroxide ions analogously determines a solution's pOH. The molecules in pure water auto-dissociate into aqueous protons and hydroxide ions in the following equilibrium:
In pure water, there is an equal number of hydroxide and ions, so it is a neutral solution. At , pure water has a pH of 7 and a pOH of 7 (this varies when the temperature changes: see self-ionization of water). A pH value less than 7 indicates an acidic solution, and a pH value more than 7 indicates a basic solution.
An oxonium ion is any cation containing a trivalent oxygen atom.
The aqueous proton is Leveling effect (assuming sufficient water for dissolution): any stronger acid will ionize and yield a hydrated proton. The acidity of (aq) is the implicit standard used to judge the strength of an acid in water: must be better proton donors than (aq), as otherwise a significant portion of acid will exist in a non-ionized state (i.e.: a weak acid). Unlike (aq) in neutral solutions that result from water's autodissociation, in acidic solutions, (aq) is long-lasting and concentrated, in proportion to the strength of the dissolved acid.
pH was originally conceived to be a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration of aqueous solution. Virtually all such free protons are quickly hydrated; acidity of an aqueous solution is therefore more accurately characterized by its concentration of (aq). In organic syntheses, such as acid catalyzed reactions, the hydronium ion () is used interchangeably with the ion; choosing one over the other has no significant effect on the mechanism of reaction.
Some hydration structures are quite large: the magic ion number structure (called magic number because of its increased stability with respect to hydration structures involving a comparable number of water molecules – this is a similar usage of the term magic number as in nuclear physics) might place the hydronium inside a dodecahedron cage. However, more recent ab initio method molecular dynamics simulations have shown that, on average, the hydrated proton resides on the surface of the cluster. Further, several disparate features of these simulations agree with their experimental counterparts suggesting an alternative interpretation of the experimental results.
Two other well-known structures are the Zundel cation and the Eigen cation. The Eigen solvation structure has the hydronium ion at the center of an complex in which the hydronium is strongly hydrogen bond to three neighbouring water molecules. In the Zundel complex the proton is shared equally by two water molecules in a symmetric hydrogen bond. A work in 1999 indicates that both of these complexes represent ideal structures in a more general hydrogen bond network defect.
Isolation of the hydronium ion monomer in liquid phase was achieved in a nonaqueous, low nucleophilicity superacid solution (). The ion was characterized by high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance.
A 2007 calculation of the enthalpy and free energies of the various hydrogen bonds around the hydronium cation in liquid protonated water at room temperature and a study of the proton hopping mechanism using molecular dynamics showed that the hydrogen-bonds around the hydronium ion (formed with the three water in the first solvation shell of the hydronium) are quite strong compared to those of bulk water.
A new model was proposed by Stoyanov based on infrared spectroscopy in which the proton exists as an ion. The positive charge is thus delocalized over 6 water molecules.
The hydronium ion also forms stable compounds with the carborane superacid . X-ray crystallography shows a point group for the hydronium ion with each proton interacting with a bromine atom each from three carborane anions 320 picometer apart on average. The salt is also soluble in benzene. In crystals grown from a benzene solution the solvent co-crystallizes and a cation is completely separated from the anion. In the cation three benzene molecules surround hydronium forming pi-cation interactions with the hydrogen atoms. The closest (non-bonding) approach of the anion at chlorine to the cation at oxygen is 348 pm.
There are also many known examples of salts containing hydrated hydronium ions, such as the ion in , the and ions both found in .
Sulfuric acid is also known to form a hydronium salt at temperatures below .I. Taesler and I. Olavsson (1968). "Hydrogen bond studies. XXI. The crystal structure of sulfuric acid monohydrate."
Interstellar hydronium is formed by a chain of reactions started by the ionization of into by cosmic radiation. can produce either or through dissociative recombination reactions, which occur very quickly even at the low (≥10 K) temperatures of dense clouds. This leads to hydronium playing a very important role in interstellar ion-neutral chemistry.
Astronomers are especially interested in determining the abundance of water in various interstellar climates due to its key role in the cooling of dense molecular gases through radiative processes. However, does not have many favorable transitions for ground-based observations. Although observations of HDO (the Heavy water) could potentially be used for estimating abundances, the ratio of HDO to is not known very accurately.
Hydronium, on the other hand, has several transitions that make it a superior candidate for detection and identification in a variety of situations. This information has been used in conjunction with laboratory measurements of the branching ratios of the various dissociative recombination reactions to provide what are believed to be relatively accurate and abundances without requiring direct observation of these species.
Since all three of these reactions produce either or OH, these results reinforce the strong connection between their relative abundances and that of . The rates of these six reactions are such that they make up approximately 99% of hydronium ion's chemical interactions under these conditions.
These first detections have been followed by observations of a number of additional transitions. The first observations of each subsequent transition detection are given below in chronological order:
In 1991, the 3 − 2 transition at was observed in OMC-1 and Sgr B2. One year later, the 3 − 2 transition at was observed in several regions, the clearest of which was the W3 IRS 5 cloud.
The first far-IR 4 − 3 transition at 69.524 μm (4.3121 THz) was made in 1996 near Orion BN-IRc2. In 2001, three additional transitions of in were observed in the far infrared in Sgr B2; 2 − 1 transition at 100.577 μm (2.98073 THz), 1 − 1 at 181.054 μm (1.65582 THz) and 2 − 1 at 100.869 μm (2.9721 THz).
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Interstellar H3O+
Hydronium is an abundant molecular ion in the interstellar medium and is found in diffuse and dense molecular clouds as well as the plasma tails of comets. Interstellar sources of hydronium observations include the regions of Sagittarius B2, Orion OMC-1, Orion BN–IRc2, Orion KL, and the comet Hale–Bopp.
Interstellar chemistry
As mentioned previously, is found in both diffuse and dense molecular clouds. By applying the reaction rate constants ( α, β, and γ) corresponding to all of the currently available characterized reactions involving , it is possible to calculate k( T) for each of these reactions. By multiplying these k( T) by the relative abundances of the products, the relative rates (in cm3/s) for each reaction at a given temperature can be determined. These relative rates can be made in absolute rates by multiplying them by the . By assuming for a dense cloud and for a diffuse cloud, the results indicate that most dominant formation and destruction mechanisms were the same for both cases. It should be mentioned that the relative abundances used in these calculations correspond to TMC-1, a dense molecular cloud, and that the calculated relative rates are therefore expected to be more accurate at . The three fastest formation and destruction mechanisms are listed in the table below, along with their relative rates. Note that the rates of these six reactions are such that they make up approximately 99% of hydronium ion's chemical interactions under these conditions. All three destruction mechanisms in the table below are classified as dissociative recombination reactions.
It is also worth noting that the relative rates for the formation reactions in the table above are the same for a given reaction at both temperatures. This is due to the reaction rate constants for these reactions having β and γ constants of 0, resulting in which is independent of temperature.
Formation 2.97 2.97 Formation 4.52 4.52 Formation 3.75 3.75 Destruction 2.27 1.02 Destruction 9.52 4.26 Destruction 5.31 2.37
Astronomical detections
As early as 1973 and before the first interstellar detection, chemical models of the interstellar medium (the first corresponding to a dense cloud) predicted that hydronium was an abundant molecular ion and that it played an important role in ion-neutral chemistry. However, before an astronomical search could be underway there was still the matter of determining hydronium's spectroscopic features in the gas phase, which at this point were unknown. The first studies of these characteristics came in 1977, which was followed by other, higher resolution spectroscopy experiments. Once several lines had been identified in the laboratory, the first interstellar detection of H3O+ was made by two groups almost simultaneously in 1986. The first, published in June 1986, reported observation of the J = 1 − 2 transition at in OMC-1 and Sgr B2. The second, published in August, reported observation of the same transition toward the Orion-KL nebula.
See also
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