Hysteretic Behavior on the Heat of Protonation of Diethylenetriamine in Aqueous Solution

Hysteretic behavior was found on the heat of protonation of diethylenetriamine (dien) in aqueous solution at 298 K. We propose the presence of two conformers for Hdien+, which have significantly different proton affinities. Mutual transformation between the conformers may be practically forbidden, but is strongly accelerated upon their protonation to form H2dien2+.