Frontier Orbitals, Combustion and Redox Transfer from a Fermionic-Bosonic Orbital Perspective

Abstract

Oxygenations are highly exergonic, yet combustion of organic matter is not spontaneous in an atmosphere that is 21% O 2 . Electrons are fermions with a quantum spin number s of 1/2 &#295; . An orbital containing a single electron with s = 1/2 is fermionic. Orbitals can contain a maximum of two electrons with antiparallel spins, i.e. , spin magnetic quantum numbers m s of 1/2 and -1/2. An orbital filled by an electron couple has s = 0 and bosonic character. The multiplicity of a reactant is defined as |2( S )| + 1 where S is the total spin quantum number. The Wigner spin conservation rules state that multiplicity is conserved. The transmission coefficient κ of absolute reaction rate theory also indicates the necessity for spin conservation. Burning is fermionic combustion that occurs when sufficient energy is applied to a bosonic molecule to cause homolytic bond cleavage yielding fermionic products capable of reaction with the bifermionic frontier orbitals of triplet multiplicity O 2 . Neutrophil leucocytes kill microorganisms by bosonic combustion and employ two mechanisms for changing the multiplicity of O 2 from triplet to singlet. Microorganisms, composed of bosonic singlet multiplicity molecules, do not directly react with bifermionic O 2 , but are highly susceptible to electrophilic attack by bosonic electronically excited singlet molecular oxygen ( ¹O₂<sup style="margin-left:-10px;">*</sup> ). Hydride ion (H - ) transfer is the common mode of cytoplasmic redox metabolism. Bosonic transfer of an orbital electron couple protects from damage by obviating fermionic reaction with bifermionic O 2 . Bosonic coupled electron transfer raises the consideration that quantum tunneling might be involved in facilitating such redox transfer.