R. Wugt Larsen

Hydrogen-bonded OH stretching modes of methanol clusters: a combined IR and Raman isotopomer study.

A comprehensive study of the OH and OD stretching fundamentals in clusters of methanol and its isotopomers CH(3)OD, CD(3)OH, and CD(3)OD provides detailed insights into the hydrogen-bond mediated coupling as a function of cluster size. The combination of infrared and Raman supersonic jet spectroscopy enables the observation and assignment of all hydrogen-bonded OH stretching modes of isolated methanol trimer and methanol tetramer. A consistent explanation for the spectral complexity observed more than a decade ago in methanol trimer in terms of low-frequency methyl umbrella motions is provided. Previous explanations based on cluster isomerism or anharmonic resonances are ruled out by dedicated jet experiments. The first experimental lower bound for concerted quadruple proton transfer in S(4) symmetric methanol tetramer is derived and compared with theoretical predictions. The observed isotope effects offer insights into the anharmonicity of the localized OH bond. The performance of harmonic B3LYP and MP2 calculations in predicting hydrogen-bond-induced spectral shifts and couplings is investigated.

Communication: The highest frequency hydrogen bond vibration and an experimental value for the dissociation energy of formic acid dimer.

The highest frequency hydrogen bond fundamental of formic acid dimer, ν(24) (B(u)), is experimentally located at 264 cm(-1). FTIR spectra of this in-plane bending mode of (HCOOH)(2) and band centers of its symmetric D isotopologues (isotopomers) recorded in a supersonic slit jet expansion are presented. Comparison to earlier studies at room temperature reveals the large influence of thermal excitation on the band maximum. Together with three B(u) combination states involving hydrogen bond fundamentals and with recent progress for the Raman-active modes, this brings into reach an accurate statistical thermodynamics treatment of the dimerization process up to room temperature. We obtain D(0) = 59.5(5) kJ/mol as the best experimental estimate for the dimer dissociation energy at 0 K. Further improvements have to wait for a more consistent determination of the room temperature equilibrium constant.

Cooperative organic hydrogen bonds: The librational modes of cyclic methanol clusters

Intermolecular hydrogen bond libration modes of isolated cyclic methanol trimers (approximately 613 cm(-1)) and tetramers (695 and 760 cm(-1)) are observed in pulsed jet Fourier transform infrared spectra and found to exhibit sizeable anharmonicity and mode coupling effects, opening the way for a microscopic interpretation of the broad librational bands of alcohols. The correlation of experimental OH stretching and OH libration band intensities provides important constraints for theoretical band strengths, cluster densities, and size assignments.

The effect of hydrogen bonding on torsional dynamics: A combined far-infrared jet and matrix isolation study of methanol dimer

The effect of strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding on torsional degrees of freedom is investigated by far-infrared absorption spectroscopy for different methanol dimer isotopologues isolated in supersonic jet expansions or embedded in inert neon matrices at low temperatures. For the vacuum-isolated and Ne-embedded methanol dimer, the hydrogen bond OH librational mode of the donor subunit is finally observed at ~560 cm(-1), blue-shifted by more than 300 cm(-1) relative to the OH torsional fundamental of the free methanol monomer. The OH torsional mode of the acceptor embedded in neon is observed at ~286 cm(-1). The experimental findings are held against harmonic predictions from local coupled-cluster methods with single and double excitations and a perturbative treatment of triple excitations [LCCSD(T)] and anharmonic. VPT2 corrections at canonical MP2 and density functional theory (DFT) levels in order to quantify the contribution of vibrational anharmonicity for this important class of intermolecular hydrogen bond vibrational motion.

The influence of large-amplitude librational motion on the hydrogen bond energy for alcohol–water complexes

The far-infrared absorption spectra have been recorded for hydrogen-bonded complexes of water with methanol and t-butanol embedded in cryogenic neon matrices at 2.8 K. The partial isotopic substitution of individual subunits enabled by a dual inlet deposition procedure provides for the first time unambiguous assignments of the intermolecular high-frequency out-of-plane and low-frequency in-plane donor OH librational modes for mixed alcohol-water complexes. The vibrational assignments confirm directly that water acts as the hydrogen bond donor in the most stable mixed complexes and the tertiary alcohol is a superior hydrogen bond acceptor. The class of large-amplitude donor OH librational motion is shown to account for up to 5.1 kJ mol(-1) of the destabilizing change of vibrational zero-point energy upon intermolecular OHO hydrogen bond formation. The experimental findings are supported by complementary electronic structure calculations at the CCSD(T)-F12/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory.

Communication: THz absorption spectrum of the CO2–H2O complex: Observation and assignment of intermolecular van der Waals vibrations

Terahertz absorption spectra have been recorded for the weakly bound CO2-H2O complex embedded in cryogenic neon matrices at 2.8 K. The three high-frequency van der Waals vibrational transitions associated with out-of-plane wagging, in-plane rocking, and torsional motion of the isotopic H2O subunit have been assigned and provide crucial observables for benchmark theoretical descriptions of this systems flat intermolecular potential energy surface. A (semi)-empirical value for the zero-point energy of 273 ± 15 cm(-1) from the class of intermolecular van der Waals vibrations is proposed and the combination with high-level quantum chemical calculations provides a value of 726 ± 15 cm(-1) for the dissociation energy D0.

Spectroscopic identification of ethanol-water conformers by large-amplitude hydrogen bond librational modes.

The far-infrared absorption spectra have been recorded for hydrogen-bonded complexes of water with ethanol embedded in cryogenic neon matrices at 2.8 K. The partial isotopic H/D-substitution of the ethanol subunit enabled by a dual inlet deposition procedure enables the observation and unambiguous assignment of the intermolecular high-frequency out-of-plane and the low-frequency in-plane donor OH librational modes for two different conformations of the mixed binary ethanol/water complex. The resolved donor OH librational bands confirm directly previous experimental evidence that ethanol acts as the O⋯HO hydrogen bond acceptor in the two most stable conformations. In the most stable conformation, the water subunit forces the ethanol molecule into its less stable gauche configuration upon dimerization owing to a cooperative secondary weak O⋯HC hydrogen bond interaction evidenced by a significantly blue-shift of the low-frequency in-plane donor OH librational band origin. The strong correlation between the low-frequency in-plane donor OH librational motion and the secondary intermolecular O⋯HC hydrogen bond is demonstrated by electronic structure calculations. The experimental findings are further supported by CCSD(T)-F12/aug-cc-pVQZ calculations of the conformational energy differences together with second-order vibrational perturbation theory calculations of the large-amplitude donor OH librational band origins.

Competition between weak OH⋯π and CH⋯O hydrogen bonds: THz spectroscopy of the C2H2—H2O and C2H4—H2O complexes

THz absorption spectra have been recorded for the weakly bound molecular complexes of H2O with C2H4 and C2H2 embedded in cryogenic neon matrices at 2.8 K. The observation and assignment of a large-amplitude acceptor OH librational mode of the C2H2-H2O complex at 145.5 cm-1 confirms an intermolecular CH⋯O hydrogen-bonded configuration of C2v symmetry with the H2O subunit acting as the hydrogen bond acceptor. The observation and assignment of two large-amplitude donor OH librational modes of the C2H4-H2O complex at 255.0 and 187.5 cm-1, respectively, confirms an intermolecular OH⋯π hydrogen-bonded configuration with the H2O subunit acting as the hydrogen bond donor to the π-cloud of C2H4. A (semi)-empirical value for the change of vibrational zero-point energy of 4.0-4.1 kJ mol-1 is proposed and the combination with quantum chemical calculations at the CCSD(T)-F12b/aug-cc-pVQZ level provides a reliable estimate of 7.1 ± 0.3 kJ mol-1 for the dissociation energy D0 of the C2H4-H2O complex. In addition, tentative assignments for the two strongly infrared active OH librational modes of the ternary C2H4-HOH-C2H4 complex having H2O as a doubly OH⋯π hydrogen bond donor are proposed at 213.6 and 222.3 cm-1. The present findings demonstrate that the relative stability of the weak hydrogen bond motifs is not entirely rooted in differences of electronic energy but also to a large extent by differences in the vibrational zero-point energy contributions arising from the class of large-amplitude intermolecular modes.

High resolution FTIR spectrum of CH2D79Br: the ground, v5 = 1 and v9 = 1 state constants

The first high-resolution infrared spectrum of CH2D79Br has been investigated in the range 710–1080 cm−1 by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy employing a synchrotron radiation source at an unapodized resolution of 0.0025 cm−1. This spectral region accounts for the fundamental bands ν 5 (ν 0 = 768.809 cm−1) and ν 9 (ν 0 = 930.354 cm−1), having the structure of hybrid a/b- and c-type bands of near-prolate asymmetric tops, respectively. The rovibrational analysis was performed over a wide range of transitions with quantum numbers J ≤ 72 and Ka ≤ 16. The experimentally determined ground-state constants including four sextic coefficients were obtained for the first time by merging the ground-state combination differences of the two bands. The A-reduced Watson Hamiltonian in the Ir representation was adopted to fit the data. Only weak interaction effects ascribed to a-type Coriolis coupling influenced the Ka = 10–14 stacks of the bands. The residuals were adjusted by including one higher-order interaction term in a dyad model.

Probing the global potential energy minimum of (CH2O)2: THz absorption spectrum of (CH2O)2 in solid neon and para-hydrogen

The true global potential energy minimum configuration of the formaldehyde dimer (CH2O)2, including the presence of a single or a double weak intermolecular CH⋯O hydrogen bond motif, has been a long-standing subject among both experimentalists and theoreticians as two different energy minima conformations of Cs and C2h symmetry have almost identical energies. The present work demonstrates how the class of large-amplitude hydrogen bond vibrational motion probed in the THz region provides excellent direct spectroscopic observables for these weak intermolecular CH⋯O hydrogen bond motifs. The combination of concentration dependency measurements, observed isotopic spectral shifts associated with H/D substitutions and dedicated annealing procedures, enables the unambiguous assignment of three large-amplitude infrared active hydrogen bond vibrational modes for the non-planar Cs configuration of (CH2O)2 embedded in cryogenic neon and enriched para-hydrogen matrices. A (semi)-empirical value for the change of vibrational zero-point energy of 5.5 ± 0.3 kJ mol-1 is proposed for the dimerization process. These THz spectroscopic observations are complemented by CCSD(T)-F12/aug-cc-pV5Z (electronic energies) and MP2/aug-cc-pVQZ (force fields) electronic structure calculations yielding a (semi)-empirical value of 13.7 ± 0.3 kJ mol-1 for the dissociation energy D0 of this global potential energy minimum.