Magnetic properties of oxyhemoglobin.

When the magnetic susceptibility of frozen aqueous solutions of human oxyhemoglobin was measured in the range between 25 and 250 K, it showed a temperature-dependent behavior typical of a thermal equilibrium between a ground singlet state and an excited triplet state for two electrons per heme, the energy separation being [2J] = 146 cm-1. By contrast, within the same temperature range, carboxyhemoglobin was found to be diamagnetic, as already reported.