Spectroscopic Studies of Diatomics in Dense Non-polar Fluids: an Overview

Dynamical characterization of rotationally hindered species in liquids

The rotational dynamics of HCl in liquid Ar has been studied by means of molecular-dynamics simulations. We calculate the lifetimes of weakly bound HCl-Ar dimers induced by the anisotropic pair interaction. It is shown that, although lifetimes are small with respect to the reorientational decorrelation, the time interval between the breaking down and formation of the next dimer is negligibly small. Thus, with respect to the rotational dynamics of the probe, the effect is similar to that and eventually would cause a time-stable complex. This provokes a peculiar hindered rotation of the diatomic in the liquid which is macroscopically embodied in the infrared spectrum of the solution as a Q-branch nonexistent otherwise.

Experimental analysis and modified rotor description of the infrared fundamental band of HCl in Ar, Kr, and Xe solutions

We report an experimental study of the rotovibrational fundamental PQR-band shapes in the IR absorption spectra of HCl dissolved in condensed rare gases in a wide range of temperatures. The effective vibrational frequencies are determined from analysis of the fine rotational structure partially resolved in the band wings. The central Q-branch components appear redshifted with respect to the effective vibrational frequencies, their shifts in different solvents found to match the HCl stretching mode shifts in binary Rg...HCl van der Waals heterodimers. Theoretical quasi-free rotor and modified rotor models are applied to describe evolution of the band profiles at changing thermodynamic conditions. Both models are shown to reproduce equally well the observed spectral density distributions in the band wings. However, the modified rotor formalism that accounts for depopulation of the lower-energy rotational solute states provides better agreement with the experiment in the range of the P- and R-branch maxima. We surmise that the Q branches separated from the measured spectral profiles are formed by transitions between rotationally hindered states of diatomic molecules coupled to the solvent by the local anisotropy of the interaction potential.

Theoretical modeling of vibroelectronic quantum states in complex molecular systems: Solvated carbon monoxide, a test case

In this paper we extend the perturbed matrix method by explicitly including the nuclear degrees of freedom, in order to treat quantum vibrational states in a perturbed molecule. In a previous paper we showed how to include, in a simple way, nuclear degrees of freedom for the calculation of molecular polarizability. In the present work we extend and generalize this approach to model vibroelectronic transitions, requiring a more sophisticated treatment.

Infrared spectral profiles in liquids and atom-diatom interactions

Molecular dynamics simulations of the infrared spectrum of a generic simple polar diatomic in a liquid nonpolar solvent allow to reproduce the different prototypical experimental line shapes of this kind of systems. This is feasible by using different solute-solvent anisotropic potentials at fixed thermodynamic conditions. In the limit cases, the rotation of the diatomic is explained in terms of a quasifree motion or a rotational diffusion evolution and the spectra show a doublet structure formed by P and R branches or a unique collapsed branch, respectively. When the profile contains three branches, including an intense Q branch in the vicinity of the center of the band, rotational evolution presents a particular hindering that can be understood by studying the influence on rotational spectral densities of the different time scales involved in rotational relaxation. Cancellation/enhancement effects among spectral density terms arising from intermediate and long times (0.4-1 ps) are essential to understand rotational hindering.

Infrared E-type band profiles of acetonitrile in condensed media: orientational diffusion and free rotation

Infrared spectra of liquid acetonitrile (CH3CN) and its solutions in CCl4, CS2, chloroform, dichloromethane, benzene-d6, acetone-d6 and dimethyl sulfoxide-d6 have been studied. E-type bands under investigation (v5 = 3009, v6 = 1448 and v7 = 1041 cm(-1)) were reproduced by the sum of two Cauchy-Gauss components, the narrower (n) and the broader (b) ones. The different temperature behaviour of the components has been found: the integrated intensities of the narrower components, In, decrease with the temperature, while the intensities of the broader ones, Ib, increase. The narrower components of the bands were explained within the framework of the orientational diffusion mechanism. The broader components of v6 and v7 were attributed to the unresolved gas-like vibration-rotational absorption of the molecules. The enthalpy difference between the molecules absorbing via these two different mechanisms was determined from the dependence of ln(In/Ib) upon T(-1) :deltaH0 = 1.26+/-0.15 kcal mol(-1). The broader component of v5 is assumed to be mainly due to interactions of C-H stretching vibrations with single particle and collective motions of molecular dipoles. The narrower components' widths were used for evaluating the spinning diffusion constant of CH3CN. The absorption in C-H stretching region was found to be strongly affected by solvent. These effects were explained within the framework of hydrogen bond formation between the CH3-group of acetonitrile and H-bond acceptor groups of the solvent molecules.