A magnetic switch for spin-catalyzed interconversion of nuclear spin isomers

Yongjun Li; Xuegong Lei; Steffen Jockusch; Judy Y-C Chen; Michael Frunzi; Jeremiah A Johnson; Ronald G Lawler; Yasujiro Murata; Michihisa Murata; Koichi Komatsu; Nicholas J Turro

doi:10.1021/ja910282p

A magnetic switch for spin-catalyzed interconversion of nuclear spin isomers

J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Mar 31;132(12):4042-3. doi: 10.1021/ja910282p.

Authors

Yongjun Li¹, Xuegong Lei, Steffen Jockusch, Judy Y-C Chen, Michael Frunzi, Jeremiah A Johnson, Ronald G Lawler, Yasujiro Murata, Michihisa Murata, Koichi Komatsu, Nicholas J Turro

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.

PMID: 20175520
DOI: 10.1021/ja910282p

Abstract

The interconversion of ortho-hydrogen (oH(2)) and para-hydrogen (pH(2)), the two nuclear spin isomers of dihydrogen, requires a paramagnetic spin catalyst such as a nitroxide. We report the design and demonstration of spin catalysis of the interconversion of oH(2) and pH(2) incarcerated in an endofullerene based on a reversible nitroxide/hydroxylamine system. The system is an example of a reversible magnetic spin catalysis switch that can increase the rate of interconversion of the nuclear spin isomers of H(2) by a factor of approximately 10(4).