No abstract

In aqueous solution, the basis of all living processes, hydrogen bonding exerts a powerful effect on chemical reactivity. The vibrational energy relaxation (VER) process in hydrogen-bonded complexes in solution is sensitive to the microscopic environment around the oscillator and to the geometrical configuration of the hydrogen-bonded complexes. In this Account, we describe the use of time-resolved infrared (IR) pump-probe spectroscopy to study the vibrational dynamics of (i) the carbonyl CO stretching modes in protic solvents and (ii) the OH stretching modes of phenol and carboxylic acid. In these cases, the carbonyl group acts as a hydrogen-bond acceptor, whereas the hydroxyl group acts as a hydrogen-bond donor. These vibrational modes have different properties depending on their respective chemical bonds, suggesting that hydrogen bonding may have different mechanisms and effects on the VER of the CO and OH modes than previously understood. The IR pump-probe signals of the CO stretching mode of 9-fluorenone and methyl acetate in alcohol, as well as that of acetic acid in water, include several components with different time constants. Quantum chemical calculations indicate that the dynamical components are the result of various hydrogen-bonded complexes that form between solute and solvent molecules. The acceleration of the VER is due to the increasing vibrational density of states caused by the formation of hydrogen bonds. The vibrational dynamics of the OH stretching mode in hydrogen-bonded complexes were studied in several systems. For phenol-base complexes, the decay time constant of the pump-probe signal decreases as the band peak of the IR absorption spectrum shifts to lower wavenumbers (the result of changing the proton acceptor). For phenol oligomers, the decay time constant of the pump-probe signal decreases as the probe wavenumber decreases. These observations show that the VER time strongly correlates with the strength of hydrogen bonding. This acceleration may be due to increased coupling between the OH stretching mode and the accepting mode of the VER, because the low-frequency shift caused by hydrogen bond formation is very large. Unlike phenol oligomers, however, the pump-probe signals of phenol-base complexes did not exhibit probe frequency dependence. For these complexes, rapid interconversion between different conformations causes rapid fluctuations in the vibrational frequency of the OH stretching modes, and these fluctuations level the VER times of different conformations. For the benzoic acid dimer, a quantum beat at a frequency of around 100 cm(-1) is superimposed on the pump-probe signal. This result indicates the presence of strong anharmonic coupling between the intramolecular OH stretching and the intermolecular stretching modes. From a two-dimensional plot of the OH stretching wavenumber and the low-frequency wavenumber, the wavenumber of the low-frequency mode is found to increase monotonically as the probe wavenumber is shifted toward lower wavenumbers. Our results represent a quant...

The vibrational dynamics of the CO stretching mode of methyl acetate (MA) in methanol was studied by time-resolved infrared (IR) pump-probe spectroscopy. The vibrational energy relaxation (VER) process includes two components with time constants of 1.3 ± 0.1 and 4.0 ± 0.2 ps. These components result from the vibrational excitations of the hydrogen-bonding complex of MA with one methanol and the MA monomer, respectively. The difference in the VER time is explained by the increase of the vibrational density of states (VDOS) by the intermolecular hydrogen bond. The time constants and the decayassociated spectra are almost identical between the CH 3 OH and the CH 3 OD solutions. The vibrational modes localized in the intramolecular OH/OD bond of the solvent methanol have little effect on the vibrational dynamics of MA.

Glow discharge plasma formed in solution under atmospheric pressure has been expected to provide reaction fields with characteristic physical and chemical properties owing to the frequent collisions and reactions of reactive particles inside and the rapid quenching of the products by the surrounding cold solutions. In particular, when an aqueous solution is utilized as the surrounding solution, the atmospheric-pressure in-solution glow (ASG) plasma contains hydrogen and hydroxyl radicals showing large activities for reduction and oxidation, respectively. In addition, because the ASG plasma is formed under atmospheric pressure, the collision frequencies between the particles contained in the plasma are higher than those in other plasmas ordinarily formed under low pressure. This feature should result in rapid energy redistribution among particles contained in the plasma. In the present study, time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy with nanosecond time resolution was applied for the diagnostics of the ASG plasma with chemical species selectivity. The time-resolved measurements revealed that the temporal evolutions of the temperatures of blackbody, hydrogen radical, and hydroxyl radical contained in the ASG plasma consist of two stages: initial rise within 0.15 µs (rising stage) and fluctuation around certain values for about 1 µs (fluctuating stage). In the time region corresponding to the rising stage, the electron number density is about ten times larger than the value temporally averaged during the plasma emission. The initial rise should result from frequent collisions between charged particles accelerated by the applied voltage and unexcited particles. In the fluctuating stage, the electron number density strongly correlates with the increase in the radical temperatures. It is concluded that the electron number density, rather than the electron temperature, is a key parameter determining the temperatures of reactive species in the ASG plasma.

No abstract

Vibrational energy relaxation of the carbonyl CO stretching modes of CH3COOD and CD3COOD in D2O is studied by frequency-resolved infrared pump-probe spectroscopy. The spectral change caused by the vibrational excitation includes two dynamical components with the time constants of 450 and 980 fs for CH3COOD and 390 and 930 fs for CD3COOD. The two dynamical components exhibit different spectral properties. There are two species of acetic acid forming different complexes with solvent water molecules. The time constants are almost the same for CH3COOD and CD3COOD, suggesting that the vibrational energy deposited to the carbonyl group is first distributed among vibrational modes not related to the methyl group.

Vibrational energy relaxation of degenerate CO stretches of four tungsten carbonyl complexes, W(CO)6, W(CO)5(CS), W(CO)5(CH3CN), and W(CO)5(CD3CN), is observed in nine alkane solutions by subpicosecond time-resolved infrared (IR) pump-probe spectroscopy. Between 0 and 10 ps after the vibrational excitation, the bleaching signal of the ground-state IR absorption band shows anisotropy. Decay of the anisotropic component corresponds either to the rotational diffusion of the molecule or to the intramolecular vibrational energy transfer among the degenerate CO stretch modes. The time constant of the anisotropy decay, tauaniso, shows distinct solvent dependence. By comparing the results for the T1u CO stretch of W(CO)6 and the A1 CO stretch of W(CO)5(CS), the time constant of the rotational diffusion, taur, and the time constant of the intramolecular energy transfer among the three degenerate vibrational modes, taue, are determined as 12 and 8 ps, respectively. The tauaniso value increases as the number of carbon atoms in the alkane solvent increases. After 10 ps, the recovery of the bleaching becomes isotropic. The isotropic decay represents the vibrational population relaxation, from v=1 to v=0. In heptane, the time constant for the isotropic decay, tau1, for W(CO)5(CS) and W(CO)6 was 140 ps. The tau1 for the two acetonitrile-substituted complexes, however, shows a smaller value of 80 ps. The vibrational energy relaxation of W(CO)5(CH3CN) and W(CO)5(CD3CN) is accelerated by the intramolecular energy redistribution from the CO ligand to the acetonitrile ligand. In the nine alkane solutions, the tau1 value of W(CO)6 ranges between 124 and 158 ps, showing the apparent V-shaped solvent dependence with its minimum in decane, while the tau1 value shows little solvent dependence for W(CO)5(CH3CN) and W(CO)5(CD3CN).

Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopic measurements have been done on five novel metallocenium ionic liquids based on the electro-optic sampling method. The study covered the spectral range from 10 to 85 cm(-1). The complex dielectric spectra were broad and dispersive in nature, and the imaginary part of the dielectric constant consisting of part of the dielectric constant was simulated with different combinations of model functions to unravel the intermolecular dynamics. We compared our results with the previous results on the other ionic liquid. It was revealed that the librational motion of the cations as well as the interion vibration between the cations and the anions are responsible for observed dynamics in THz region. No intramolecular vibrational mode has been found in the low-frequency region.