title: Communication: Where does the first water molecule go in imidazole?
abstract: Supersonic jet FTIR spectroscopy supplemented by (18)O substitution shows unambiguously that water prefers to act as an O-H···N hydrogen bond donor towards imidazole, instead of acting as a N-H···O acceptor. Previous matrix isolation, helium droplet, and aromatic substitution experiments had remained ambiguous, as are standard quantum chemical calculations. The finding is supported by a study of the analogous methanol complexes and by higher level quantum chemical calculations.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Tammannstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zischang
authors.forename: Juhyon J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Suhm