The rotational spectra of three C-deuterated isotopologues of the dimer of formic acid have been measured, thanks to the small dipole moment induced by asymmetric H! Ds ubstitution(s). Fort he DCOOH-HCOOH species,t he concerted double proton transfer of the two hydroxy hydrogen atoms takes place between two equivalent minima and generates at unneling splitting of 331.2(6) MHz. This splitting can be reproduced by a3Dmodel with abarrier of 2559 cm À1 (30.6 kJ mol À1 )aso btained from theoretical calculations.Carboxylic acids form considerably stable dimers,t hat are sufficiently abundant at experimental conditions in as upersonic jet expansion. An umber of molecular complexes involving carboxylic acids [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] have been investigated by rotational spectroscopy,t ou nderstand the nature of their non-covalent interactions and to have information on their internal dynamics and on their conformational equilibria. Much attention has been paid to the complexes of carboxylic acids,m ainly to their dimers [1] and to their adducts with water. [2] Plenty of data have been obtained on the hydrogenbonded dimers involving proton tunneling,t he Ubbelohde effect and conformational equilibria. [1] HCOOH (formic acid; FA)isthe prototype of the carboxylic acids family and for this reason it is involved in most of the investigations of carboxylic acids bonded to molecules containing other functional groups, such as its adducts with H 2 O, [2a] N(CH 3 ) 3 , [3] CO 2 , [4] thesimplest aldehyde CH 2 O, [5] thesimplest amide H(CO)NH 2 , [6] ethers, [7] ketones, [8] freons, [9] azines [10] and its reactivity with alcohols. [11] An interesting feature of the dimer of FA,( FA) 2 ,i st he concerted transfer of the two hydroxylic protons,amotion in ad ouble minimum potential. It can generate tunneling doubling observable in molecular spectra, and makes them useful to studies of the tunneling process.T he precise tunneling splittings (DE 01 )m easured by microwave (MW) spectroscopy for the acrylic acid dimer [1g] and for the formic acid-benzoic acid bi-molecule [1h] have been reproduced by model calculations with barriers at or close to values obtained ab initio.In Figure 1w es how the proton transfer motion in the formic acid dimer along as ymmetric double minimum potential energy profile.
Acetophenone and its complex with water have been investigated by using pulsed jet Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy complemented with quantum chemical calculations.
The rotational spectra of several isotopologues of the chlorotrifluoroethylene–water adduct show that the two subunits are linked together through a lone‐pair⋅⋅⋅π interaction (see picture). This structure is also predicted by calculations.
The bimolecule acrylic acid-formic acid has been investigated by pulsed jet Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. The complex adopts two different conformational shapes, according to the cis or trans forms of the acrylic acid moiety. The measurements have been extended to four deuterated and to four (13)C (natural abundance) species, and their combinations, for each conformer. These data allowed us to determine the carbon skeleton structures and to size quantitatively the structural effect caused by the OH → OD isotopic substitutions (the Ubbelohde effect).
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