to protonate

1 8.6

To add a proton to a molecule or atom

verb
/ˈproʊtəˌneɪt/

Specialized

: protonar

But if you put HBR in there, you protonate it, right?

Examples

In the presence of acid, the compound can protonate and form a positively charged ion.
So it's able then to to protonate this, this this.
An initial rapid protonation of the ketal is followed by the reaction of the protonated species with water to form a hemiketal and an alcohol.

Academic text (2001)
The intermediate U is believed to be a protonated tryptophan radical 1(b).

Academic text (2001)
PEI possesses the native positive charge due to the protonated amine groups at the neutral pH of 7.0.

Academic text (2018)
The carbocation releases a proton (the last step), which then protonates another ester group to repeat the last three steps of this sequence.

Academic text (2001)
We recently applied IMOMO to the S1 photoisomerization of the retinal protonated Schiff base (PSB) 64.

Academic text (2001)
To increase the reactivity, they decided to protonate the molecule during the experiment.
When water is added to the solution, it can protonate the organic compound effectively.

Surface Forms

protonate infinitive

protonated past

protonated past participle

protonating present participle

protonates third person singular

Morphology

protonate = proton (transparent) = proton + ate

Formed by the noun 'proton' plus the productive verb-forming suffix '-ate', commonly used in chemistry to mean 'to add or subject to a proton', so the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Protonate comes from proton, a small, positively charged particle inside atoms, and the verb ending -ate which can mean 'to give' or 'to make'. So to protonate is to 'give' a proton to a molecule, and that added positive particle changes the molecule's properties.