Abstract
The solution epr spectra of ${\alpha}-1,2,3-[H_nPV(IV)V_2W_9O_{40}]^{(7-n)-}$were measured at various pH and three protonated species have been identified. The spectrum of $H_3PV(IV)Ⅴ_2$ consisting of 8 lines indicates that the V-OH-V bridge prevents effectively the electron transfer between the vanadium atoms. The spectrum of $H_2PV(IV)V_2$ consisting of 15 lines can be interpreted by assuming that the electron is hopping fast between the two vanadium atoms in the V-O-V sequence. The multi-line spectrum of $HPV(IV)V_2$ is interpreted as a poorly resolved 43-line spectrum which originates from the electron hopping among the three vanadium atoms with the forward and backward transition probabilities of 4:1 in the OH-V-O-V sequence.