THE GROTTHUSS MECHANISM

Suggested mechanisms for proton mobility are confronted with experimen tal findings and quantum mechanical calculations, indicating that no m odel is consistent with the existing data. It is suggested that the mo lecular mechanism behind prototropic mobility involves a periodic seri es of isomerizations between H9O4+ and H5O2+, the first triggered by h ydrogen-bond cleavage of a second-shell water molecule and the second by the reverse, hydrogen-bond formation process.