The self-associating behavior of pyrrole in liquid xenon

Dimers or trimers? A characterization of the halogen bonded complexes of CF3X (X=I or Br) with dimethyl ether and acetone in cryosolutions

Acetone molecules dissolved in liquid krypton are inclined to self-associate into dimers. This behavior affects its use as a prototype Lewis base in studies of weak intermolecular interactions. In this study infrared spectra of mixed solutions of dimethyl ether and CF₃X and of acetone and CF₃X (with X=I or Br) dissolved in liquid argon and liquid krypton are recorded at constant temperature. The dataset for dimethyl ether is used to validate a numerical method based on least-squares fitting of a model including contributions of both monomers and a heterodimer with 1:1 stoichiometry. The resulting monomer and dimer spectra show excellent agreement with previous studies found in literature. The analysis of the dataset for acetone requires an extension of the model with contributions for the acetone homodimer and for (acetone)₂·CF₃X and acetone·(CF₃X)₂ trimers. The results show that many signals for acetone·CF₃I and (acetone)₂·CF₃I are observed, while only a few bands due to acetone·(CF₃I)₂ occur. The use of numerical approaches adjusted to the specificities of a mixture of two compounds allows to reliably resolve overlapping spectra of monomers and heterocomplexes and characterizing heterocomplex features that could not be deduced using earlier methods. To support the assignments made, ab initio calculations predicting geometries, relative stabilities and harmonic vibrational frequencies for the species envisaged are performed.

Self-Associating Behavior of Acetone in Liquid Krypton

Acetone molecules are inclined to self-associate through dipole-dipole interactions because of their large dipole moment. Infrared spectroscopy of compounds dissolved in liquid noble gases supported by high level ab initio calculations allows investigating the self-associating behavior and determining the thermodynamical properties. In this study, infrared spectra of various concentrations of acetone dissolved in liquid krypton are recorded at constant temperature. Overlapping monomer and dimer spectra are separated by analyzing the obtained data sets with numerical methods based on least-squares fitting. Although acetone is known to self-associate, only a few spectral features have been presented in literature before. In this study, the application of new numerical approaches succeeds in resolving overlapping spectra and allows observing isolated acetone dimer absorption bands for the complete mid infrared spectrum. By use of data sets of spectra recorded at temperatures between 134 and 142 K, the experimental standard dimerization enthalpy was determined to be -10.8 kJ mol(-1). MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ calculations predicted a stacked and planar dimer geometry of which the stacked geometry is more stable. Combining MP2 energies and single point corrections involving CCSD(T) calculations and complete basis set extrapolations based on the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ equilibrium geometry lead to complexation energy of -28.4 kJ mol(-1) for the stacked geometry and -15.1 kJ mol(-1) for the planar geometry. The corresponding values for the complexation enthalpies in solution, obtained by combining these values with corrections for thermal and solvent influences are -13.7 and -5.8 kJ mol(-1).