Tautomerise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To undergo a chemical process where a molecule transforms by shifting a proton and a double bond, resulting in isomers known as tautomers; to cause or facilitate this shift between structural isomers differing mainly in the position of a proton and a double bond; to convert one tautomeric form of a compound into another through proton relocation and bond rearrangement
2. Describing the reaction in which a compound changes its structure by moving a hydrogen atom and altering a double bond position to form different isomers called tautomers; referring to the act of inducing or enabling the interconversion of chemical isomers differing primarily in proton location and bond placement; the process of changing from one tautomeric structure to another by internal atomic shifts within a molecule
3. The process whereby a molecule shifts a hydrogen and rearranges a double bond to form distinct structural isomers called tautomers; the action of inducing tautomeric interconversion between these isomers characterized by proton migration and bond repositioning; to transform compounds by moving atoms internally to generate alternate tautomeric forms

Etymology: "Tautomerise" is a modern scientific coinage, built from "tautomer" and the suffix "-ise." The first part, "tautomer," is itself a compound of Greek roots: "tauto," from "tautos" meaning "the same," and "-mer," from "meros" meaning "part." Chemists used it for compounds that can exist in two forms differing only in where a hydrogen atom and a double bond sit, a pair that is in effect one substance shifting between two arrangements. The suffix "-ise" (also spelled "-ize") comes from Greek "-izein" through Latin "-izare," and attaches to nouns and adjectives to make verbs meaning "to make into" or "to subject to" something. Adding it to "tautomer" gives a verb for the process of converting a compound into its tautomeric form, or of that form shifting back and forth.

Synonyms: tautomerize, isomerize, rearrange