The adsorption of aniline on a silver mirror was studied by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculation methods. The normal Raman and SERS spectra of pure aniline liquid and its solutions were recorded by a micro-Raman spectrometer with excitation at 514.5 nm. Orientation of the aniline molecule adsorbed on the Ag mirror is discussed. The results indicate that pure aniline is adsorbed on the surface of the Ag mirror with a tilted orientation. The conformer with the nitrogen atom interacting with the metal surface would be dominant. DFT calculations further confirm the experimental results that charge transfer (CT) takes place from the highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) of aniline to the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) of the silver surface. In this paper, the frontier molecular orbital theory has been successfully used to explore the interaction between the aniline molecule and the silver surface.

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2-Phenylethylamine (PEA) is the simplest aromatic amine neurotransmitter, as well as one of the most important. In this work, the conformational equilibrium and hydrogen bonding in liquid PEA were studied by means of Raman spectroscopy and theoretical calculations (DFT/MP2). By changing the orientation of the ethyl and the NH(2) group, nine possible conformers of PEA were found, including four degenerate conformers. Comparison of the experimental Raman spectra of liquid PEA and the calculated Raman spectra of the five typical conformers in selected regions (550-800 and 1250-1500 cm(-1)) revealed that the five conformers can coexist in conformational equilibrium in the liquid. The NH(2) stretching mode of the liquid is red-shifted by ca. 30 cm(-1) relative to that of an isolated PEA molecule (measured previously), implying that intermolecular N-H···N hydrogen bonds play an important role in liquid PEA. The relative intensity of the Raman band at 762 cm(-1) was found to increase with increasing temperature, indicating that the anti conformer might be favorable in liquid PEA at room temperature. The blue shift of the band for the bonded N-H stretch with increasing temperature also provides evidence of the existence of intermolecular N-H···N hydrogen bonds.