Muonium: a light isotope of hydrogen
Muonium differs from hydrogen only by virtue of having the light, short-lived positive muon as its nucleus rather than a proton. This review of the chemistry of muonium emphasises its role as a readily observable radioactive isotope of H. It is therefore a discussion of several things: of kinetic isotope effects; of the basic principles of the muon spin rotation (..mu..SR) technique; some of the underlying elementary particle phenomena; the various types of H-atom reactions; and the significant ways in which muonium chemistry applies beyond the bounds of its own intriguing properties. These include the following: the revelation of kinetic isotope effects ranging from 10/sup -2/ to 10/sup 2/ in aqueous solutions; the finding that diffusion in water is independent of mass, even for solutes much smaller than the solvent molecules; a marked isotope effect in comparing the hyperfine coupling constants of muonium- and hydrogen-containing free radicals; both experimental and theoretical evidence for the mass and temperature at which quantum mechanical tunneling starts to dominate in bimolecular reaction rates; and the use of electron spin exchange (conversion from ''triplet'' to ''singlet'' muonium) to study elementary kinetics and as a spin probe of paramagnetism in systems of biological interest. ..mu..SR utilizes the powerful nuclear physics techniques of single-particle counting to study muonium, one atom at a time, on a timescale of 10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -5/ s where homogeneous thermal chemical reactions with some 60 solutes in aqueous solution and 11 gases have been studied for comparison with H. Mention is also made of future use of negative muons and of studies on the origin of optical activity in nature.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- OSTI ID:
- 6732760
- Journal Information:
- J. Phys. Chem.; (United States), Vol. 85:26
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
MUONIUM
CHEMISTRY
ISOTOPE EFFECTS
ATOMS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COUPLING CONSTANTS
EQUATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GASES
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
KINETICS
LARMOR PRECESSION
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
MUONS
ORGANIC SOLVENTS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POLARIZATION
QUANTITY RATIO
RADICALS
SOLVENTS
SPIN ORIENTATION
YIELDS
DATA
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORIENTATION
PRECESSION
400702* - Radiochemistry & Nuclear Chemistry- Properties of Radioactive Materials
400202 - Isotope Effects
Isotope Exchange
& Isotope Separation
400302 - Organic Chemistry- Isotope Effects- (-1987)