Talk:Hydrogen–deuterium exchange

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:55, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

"chemical reaction"
According to the internal wiki link provided, "A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to [sic] another." By this definition, hydrogen-deuterium exchange is not a chemical reaction, since isotopic exchange does not alter the chemical structure of a substance. Tachyon 22:07, 17 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Janopus (talk • contribs)

Since hydrogen and deuterium atoms differ in some physical properties and therefore are not chemically identical it is more logical to argue that the exchange of a hydrogen atom for a deuterium atom is in fact a chemical reaction. Massovercharge 10:40, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Precedence
The physical exchange of protons and deuterium nuclei was known well before its application to proteins. For example, see Halford et al., 1934  Tachyon 22:33, 17 December 2011 (UTC)