title: High-energy conformer of formic acid in solid neon: giant difference between the proton tunneling rates of cis monomer and trans-cis dimer.
abstract: We study the conformational reorganization of formic acid (FA) in solid neon and report the higher-energy cis-FA monomer and one form of the trans-cis FA dimers. They were prepared by selective vibrational excitation of the trans-FA monomer and trans-trans dimer. The proton tunneling decay of cis-FA monomer is surprisingly very fast in solid neon, two orders of magnitude faster than in solid argon. It was also found that the stability of the trans-cis dimer against proton tunneling is enormously enhanced in solid neon compared to the monomer (by a factor of approximately 300). These results are discussed in terms of matrix solvation and hydrogen bonding.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 55, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Kseniya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Marushkevich
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Khriachtchev
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Räsänen