Kaito Takahashi

Fundamental and overtone vibrational spectra of gas-phase pyruvic acid.

Pyruvic acid (CH(3)COCOOH) is an important keto acid present in the atmosphere. In this study, the vibrational spectroscopy of gas-phase pyruvic acid has been investigated with special emphasis on the overtone transitions of the OH-stretch, with Delta v(OH) = 2, 4, 5. Assignments were made to fundamental and combination bands in the mid-IR. The two lowest energy rotational conformers of pyruvic acid are clearly observed in the spectrum. The lowest energy conformer possesses an intramolecular hydrogen bond, while the next lowest rotational conformer does not. This difference is clearly seen in the spectra of the OH vibrational overtone transitions, and it is reflected in the anharmonicities of the OH-stretching modes for each conformer. The spectra of the OH-stretching vibration for both conformers were investigated to establish the effect of the hydrogen bond on frequency, intensity, and line width.

Gas-phase water-mediated equilibrium between methylglyoxal and its geminal diol

In aqueous solution, aldehydes, and to a lesser extent ketones, hydrate to form geminal diols. We investigate the hydration of methylglyoxal (MG) in the gas phase, a process not previously considered to occur in water-restricted environments. In this study, we spectroscopically identified methylglyoxal diol (MGD) and obtained the gas-phase partial pressures of MG and MGD. These results, in conjunction with the relative humidity, were used to obtain the equilibrium constant, KP, for the water-mediated hydration of MG in the gas phase. The Gibbs free energy for this process, ΔG°, obtained as a result, suggests a larger than expected gas-phase diol concentration. This may have significant implications for understanding the role of organics in atmospheric chemistry.

Strong Negative Temperature Dependence of the Simplest Criegee Intermediate CH2OO Reaction with Water Dimer.

The kinetics of the reaction of CH2OO with water vapor was measured directly with UV absorption at temperatures from 283 to 324 K. The observed CH2OO decay rate is second order with respect to the H2O concentration, indicating water dimer participates in the reaction. The rate coefficient of the CH2OO reaction with water dimer can be described by an Arrhenius expression k(T) = A exp(-Ea/RT) with an activation energy of -8.1 ± 0.6 kcal mol(-1) and k(298 K) = (7.4 ± 0.6) × 10(-12) cm(3) s(-1). Theoretical calculations yield a large negative temperature dependence consistent with the experimental results. The temperature dependence increases the effective loss rate for CH2OO by a factor of ~2.5 at 278 K and decreases by a factor of ~2 at 313 K relative to 298 K, suggesting that temperature is important for determining the impact of Criegee intermediate reactions with water in the atmosphere.

UV absorption spectrum of the C2 Criegee intermediate CH3CHOO

The UV spectrum of CH3CHOO was measured by transient absorption in a flow cell at 295 K. The absolute absorption cross sections of CH3CHOO were measured by laser depletion in a molecular beam to be (1.06 ± 0.09) × 10(-17) cm(2) molecule(-1) at 308 nm and (9.7 ± 0.6) × 10(-18) cm(2) molecule(-1) at 352 nm. After scaling the UV spectrum of CH3CHOO to the absolute cross section at 308 nm, the peak UV cross section is (1.27 ± 0.11) × 10(-17) cm(2) molecule(-1) at 328 nm. Compared to the simplest Criegee intermediate CH2OO, the UV absorption band of CH3CHOO is similar in intensity but blue shifted by 14 nm, resulting in a 20% slower photolysis rate estimated for CH3CHOO in the atmosphere.

Unimolecular Decomposition Rate of the Criegee Intermediate (CH3)2COO Measured Directly with UV Absorption Spectroscopy

The unimolecular decomposition of (CH3)2COO and (CD3)2COO was measured by direct detection of the Criegee intermediate at temperatures from 283 to 323 K using time-resolved UV absorption spectroscopy. The unimolecular rate coefficient kd for (CH3)2COO shows a strong temperature dependence, increasing from 269 ± 82 s(-1) at 283 K to 916 ± 56 s(-1) at 323 K with an Arrhenius activation energy of ∼6 kcal mol(-1). The bimolecular rate coefficient for the reaction of (CH3)2COO with SO2, kSO2, was also determined in the temperature range 283 to 303 K. Our temperature-dependent values for kd and kSO2 are consistent with previously reported relative rate coefficients kd/kSO2 of (CH3)2COO formed from ozonolysis of tetramethyl ethylene. Quantum chemical calculations of kd for (CH3)2COO are consistent with the experiment, and the combination of experiment and theory for (CD3)2COO indicates that tunneling plays a significant role in (CH3)2COO unimolecular decomposition. The fast rates of unimolecular decomposition for (CH3)2COO measured here, in light of the relatively slow rate for the reaction of (CH3)2COO with water previously reported, suggest that thermal decomposition may compete with the reactions with water and with SO2 for atmospheric removal of the dimethyl-substituted Criegee intermediate.

Theoretical calculation of the OH vibrational overtone spectra of 1-n alkane diols (n = 2-4): origin of disappearing hydrogen-bonded OH peak.

In this theoretical study, we simulated the vibrational overtone spectrum of ethylene glycol (EG), 1-3 propanediol (PD), and 1-4 butanediol (BD). Using the local mode model along with the potential energy curve and dipole moment function calculated by B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) and QCISD/6-311++G(3df,3pd), we obtained the theoretical peak position and integrated absorption coefficient. Furthermore, the vibrational spectra was simulated using a Voigt function using homogeneous and inhomogenous width obtained from quantum chemical calculation methods. Previously, Howard and Kjaergaard recorded the second and third overtone photoacoustic spectra of the three aforementioned alkane diols in the gas phase and observed that the intramolecular hydrogen bonded OH peak becomes difficult to observe as the intramolecular hydrogen bonding strength increased, that is, as the chain length was increased. In this paper we show that the disappearance of the hydrogen-bonded OH peak for the OH stretching overtone excitation for BD is partly due to the increase in homogeneous width due to the increase in the hydrogen bond strength and partly due to the decrease in the relative population of the intramolecular hydrogen-bonded conformers as the chain length is increased. This latter feature is a consequence of the unfavorable strained geometry needed to form the intramolecular hydrogen bond in longer alkane chains.

Experimental and Theoretical Study of the OH Vibrational Spectra and Overtone Chemistry of Gas-Phase Vinylacetic Acid

In this study we present the gas-phase vibrational spectrum of vinylacetic acid with a focus on the nu = 1-5 vibrational states of the OH stretching transitions. Cross sections for nu = 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the OH stretching vibrational transitions are derived on the basis of the vapor pressure data obtained for vinylacetic acid. Ab initio calculations are used to assist in the band assignments of the experimental spectra, and to determine the threshold for the decarboxylation of vinylacetic acid. When compared to the theoretical energy barrier to decarboxylation, it is found that the nu OH = 4 transition with thermal excitation of low frequency modes or rotational motion and nu OH = 5 transitions have sufficient energy for the reaction to proceed following overtone excitation.

Assessment of density functional theory to calculate the phase transition pressure of ice

To assess the accuracy of density functional theory (DFT) methods in describing hydrogen bonding in condensed phases, we benchmarked their performance in describing phase transitions among different phases of ice. We performed DFT calculations of ice for phases Ih, II, III, VI and VII using BLYP, PW91, PBE, PBE-D, PBEsol, B3LYP, PBE0, and PBE0-D, and compared the calculated phase transition pressures between Ih-II, Ih-III, II-VI, and VI-VII with the 0 K experimental values of Whalley [J. Chem. Phys., 1984, 81, 4087]. From the geometry optimization of many different candidates, we found that the most stable proton orientation as well as the phase transition pressure does not show much functional dependence for the generalized gradient approximation and hybrid functionals. Although all these methods overestimated the phase transition pressure, the addition of van der Waals (vdW) correction using PBE-D and PBE0-D reduced the transition pressure and improved the agreement for Ih-II. On the other hand, energy ordering between VI and VII reversed and gave an unphysical negative transition pressure. Binding energy profiles of a few conformations of water dimers were calculated to understand the improvement for certain transitions and failures for others with the vdW correction. We conclude that vdW dispersion forces must be considered to accurately describe the hydrogen bond in many different phases of ice, but the simple addition of the R(-6) term with a small basis set tends to over stabilize certain geometries giving unphysical ordering in the high density phases.

Will water act as a photocatalyst for cluster phase chemical reactions? Vibrational overtone-induced dehydration reaction of methanediol

The possibility of water catalysis in the vibrational overtone-induced dehydration reaction of methanediol is investigated using ab initio dynamical simulations of small methanediol-water clusters. Quantum chemistry calculations employing clusters with one or two water molecules reveal that the barrier to dehydration is lowered by over 20 kcal/mol because of hydrogen-bonding at the transition state. Nevertheless, the simulations of the reaction dynamics following OH-stretch excitation show little catalytic effect of water and, in some cases, even show an anticatalytic effect. The quantum yield for the dehydration reaction exhibits a delayed threshold effect where reaction does not occur until the photon energy is far above the barrier energy. Unlike thermally induced reactions, it is argued that competition between reaction and the irreversible dissipation of photon energy may be expected to raise the dynamical threshold for the reaction above the transition state energy. It is concluded that quantum chemistry calculations showing barrier lowering are not sufficient to infer water catalysis in photochemical reactions, which instead require dynamical modeling.

Theoretical calculation of the OH vibrational overtone spectra of 1,5-pentanediol and 1,6-hexanediol.

It is well-known that intramolecular hydrogen bonding affects the relative energetics of conformers, as well as the OH stretching peak positions, intensities, and width. In this study we simulated the Δv(OH) = 3, 4 overtone spectra of 1,5-pentanediol (PeD) and 1,6-hexanediol (HD) using the peak positions, intensities, and width calculated from the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) method. Furthermore, room temperature free energy calculations were performed using B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) MP2/6-31+G(d,p), and MP2/6-311++G(3df,3pd) to obtain the relative population of the conformers. From the calculation of 109 and 381 distinct conformers for PeD and HD, respectively, we find that for these long chain diols the intramolecular hydrogen bonded conformers are not the most dominant conformation at room temperature. This is in stark contrast with shorter chain diols such as ethylene glycol for which the hydrogen bonded conformer dominates the population at room temperature. On the other hand, we found that the correlation between the hydrogen bonded OH red shift versus the homogeneous width, Γ = 0.0155(Δω)(1.36), which was derived for shorter chain diols, is valid even for these longer chain diols. We also showed that the intramolecular hydrogen bonded OH initially decays through the CCOH torsion and COH bending mode no matter how long the alkanediol chain length is for 1,n-alkanediols for n up to 6.