ABSTRACT
This chapter devotes mainly to the physical mechanism of the elementary act of proton transfer reactions in homogeneous reactions. In 1967 Dogonadze et al. suggested a quantum mechanical model of proton transfer in which both the motion of the proton and the dynamic influence of the polar medium were incorporated. This model has served as a basis of modern views on the physical mechanism of proton transitions, and its further development has lead to the construction of the quantum mechanical theory of the elementary processes of proton transfer in various systems with due account of their specific features. Activation along the coordinates of the modes of the medium is by a classical change of the configurations of the molecules of the medium. A quantum mechanical treatment was used for the description of the proton behavior. Hydrogen kinetic isotope effects are one manifestation of the quantum character of the proton behavior.
