Proton affinity is a useful parameter for describing gas-phase ion-molecule reactions in fields such as atmospheric chemistry, plasma chemistry, mass spectrometry, and astrophysics. The proton affinity Epa (often designated in the literature as PA) of a molecular species M is defined as the negative of the enthalpy change for the gas-phase reaction
M + H+ → MH+
A closely related quantity is the gas-phase basicity ΔbaseG° (often designated as GB), which is the negative of the Gibbs energy change for the same reaction. Thus, the two are related by
ΔbaseG° = Epa + TΔS
where T is the temperature and ΔS is the entropy change in the reaction (which can be calculated if the molecular structure of M and M+ is known).
Direct measurement of the proton affinity is possible for only a few molecules, mainly olefins and carbonyl compounds. However, these measurements have been used to establish a scale of Epa values that permits proton affinities to be determined for many other molecules, including unstable species and reaction intermediates. The basis for this scale is described by Hunter and Lias in Ref. 1.
The Epa and ΔbaseG° values at a temperature of 298 K are tabulated below for selected molecules. Many values are given to one decimal place, but the majority are not accurate to better than one or two kilojoules per mole. The methods of measurement are described in Ref. 1, which contains a much more extensive and detailed tabulation.
Column definitions for the table are as follows.
Column heading | Definition |
Name | Name of compound; listed alphabetically by name |
Mol. form. | Molecular formula of compound, in Hill order |
Epa | Proton affinity, in units kJ mol-1 |
ΔbaseG° | Gas-phase basicity, in units kJ mol-1 (negative of the Gibbs energy change for the reaction) |
Note | Reference or additional information of interest |
Name | Synonym | Mol. form. | Formula | CAS Reg. No. | Mol. wt. | Epa/kJ mol-1 | ΔbaseGº/kJ mol-1 | Note |
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Acenaphthene | 1,2-Dihydroacenaphthylene | C12H10 | C12H10 | 83-32-9 | 154.207 | 851.7 | 821.0 | |
Acetaldehyde | Ethanal | C2H4O | CH3CHO | 75-07-0 | 44.052 | 768.5 | 736.5 | |
Acetamide | Ethanamide | C2H5NO | CH3CONH2 | 60-35-5 | 59.067 | 863.6 | 832.6 | |
Acetic acid | Ethanoic acid | C2H4O2 | CH3COOH | 64-19-7 | 60.052 | 783.7 | 752.8 | |
Acetic anhydride | Acetyl acetate | C4H6O3 | C4H6O3 | 108-24-7 | 102.089 | 844 | Ref. 9 | |
Acetohydroxamic acid | N-Hydroxyacetamide | C2H5NO2 | 546-88-3 | 75.067 | 854.0 | 823.0 | ||
Acetone | 2-Propanone | C3H6O | (CH3)2CO | 67-64-1 | 58.079 | 812 | 782.1 | |
Acetonitrile | Methyl cyanide | C2H3N | CH3CN | 75-05-8 | 41.052 | 779.2 | 748 | |
Acetophenone | Methyl phenyl ketone | C8H8O | C6H5C=OCH3 | 98-86-2 | 120.149 | 861.1 | 829.3 | |
4-Acetylanisole | C9H10O2 | 100-06-1 | 150.174 | 895.6 | 863.7 | |||
4-Acetylbenzonitrile | C9H7NO | 1443-80-7 | 145.158 | 826.8 | 795.0 | |||
Acetylene | Ethyne | C2H2 | HC≡CH | 74-86-2 | 26.037 | 641.4 | 616.7 | |
4-Acetylphenyl acetate | C10H10O3 | 13031-43-1 | 178.184 | 853.2 | 821.3 | |||
4-Acetylthioanisole | C9H10OS | 1778-09-2 | 166.239 | 888.2 | 856.3 | |||
Acridine | Dibenzo[b,e]pyridine | C13H9N | 260-94-6 | 179.217 | 972.6 | 940.7 | ||
Acrolein | 2-Propenal | C3H4O | CH2=CHCHO | 107-02-8 | 56.063 | 797.0 | 765.1 | |
Acrylamide | 2-Propenamide | C3H5NO | C3H5NO | 79-06-1 | 71.078 | 870.7 | 839.8 | |
Acrylonitrile | Propenenitrile | C3H3N | CH2=CHCN | 107-13-1 | 53.063 | 784.7 | 753.7 | |
Adenine | 1H-Purin-6-amine | C5H5N5 | C5H5N5 | 73-24-5 | 135.128 | 942.8 | 912.5 |