Quantities depending on the low-energy microscopic structure of the nucleus (e.g., \(\beta\) -strength functions, low-lying quasiparticle energies and nuclear masses) exhibit a strong dependence on nuclear pairing force. Determination of these quantities necessitates consideration of pairing effects. The current study provides valuable insights into charge-changing transitions, half-lives and stellar electron capture (SEC) rates by taking into account the effect of pairing gaps. The nuclei were selected from a list of the top 50 electron-capturing nuclei, which have the largest effect on \(Y_e\) for conditions after silicon core burning (Nabi et al. in Astrophys J 911:93, 2011). We employ the deformed proton–neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (pn-QRPA) model for the calculations. SEC rates calculated by the four-point formula were up to 10 \(\%\) bigger in the high-temperature and -density phases of stellar core. The four-point formula resulted in the best prediction power of our nuclear model reproducing 97.36 \(\%\) of measured half-lives within a factor of 10. The calculated SEC rates, using the four-point formula were, on average, factor 8 (2) bigger than the large-scale shell model (independent particle model) results. For heavier nuclei (65 \(\le A \le\) 80), our SEC rates were, on average, factor 19 bigger than the independent particle model rates. The current findings bear significance for late stellar evolution phases of massive stars.
