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Science 3 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5765, p. 1209
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5765.1209m
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The hydroperoxy radical (HO2) is a short-lived intermediate implicated in a wide range of atmospheric and combustion processes. Given the abundance of water in the atmosphere, HO2-water complexes have been postulated in reaction models, but they have eluded definitive detection. Suma et al. (p. 1278) characterized the HO2-H2O complex using microwave rotational spectroscopy. The data support a pentagonal geometry in which a water OH group is hydrogen bonded to coplanar OOH and provide a spectroscopic signature for probing the atmosphere for the presence of the complex. Comparison with theoretical modeling suggests that, despite a binding energy approaching 10 kilocalories per mole, the unpaired electron remains localized on the peroxy fragment.




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