Measuring picosecond isomerization kinetics via broadband microwave spectroscopy

Twins in rotational spectroscopy: Does a rotational spectrum uniquely identify a molecule?

Rotational spectroscopy is the most accurate method for determining structures of molecules in the gas phase. It is often assumed that a rotational spectrum is a unique "fingerprint" of a molecule. The availability of large molecular databases and the development of artificial intelligence methods for spectroscopy make the testing of this assumption timely. In this paper, we pose the determination of molecular structures from rotational spectra as an inverse problem. Within this framework, we adopt a funnel-based approach to search for molecular twins, which are two or more molecules, which have similar rotational spectra but distinctly different molecular structures. We demonstrate that there are twins within standard levels of computational accuracy by generating rotational constants for many molecules from several large molecular databases, indicating that the inverse problem is ill-posed. However, some twins can be distinguished by increasing the accuracy of the theoretical methods or by performing additional experiments.

Unraveling the ultrafast dynamics of thermal-energy chemical reactions

In this perspective, we discuss how one can initiate, image, and disentangle the ultrafast elementary steps of thermal-energy chemical dynamics, building upon advances in technology and scientific insight. We propose that combinations of ultrashort mid-infrared laser pulses, controlled molecular species in the gas phase, and forefront imaging techniques allow to unravel the elementary steps of general-chemistry reaction processes in real time. We detail, for prototypical first reaction systems, experimental methods enabling these investigations, how to sufficiently prepare and promote gas-phase samples to thermal-energy reactive states with contemporary ultrashort mid-infrared laser systems, and how to image the initiated ultrafast chemical dynamics. The results of such experiments will clearly further our understanding of general-chemistry reaction dynamics.

High throughput chirped pulse Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy of ethanol and water clusters

Here we discuss the design and performance of a novel high-throughput instrument for Chirped Pulse Fourier-transform Microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy, and demonstrate its efficacy through the identification of the lowest energy conformers of the ethanol trimer and mixed water : ethanol trimers. Rotational constants for these trimers were calculated from observed lines in the spectra from 10 to 14 GHz, and compared to the results of anharmonic ab initio computations. As predicted, all trimers share a cyclic donor-acceptor hydrogen bonding structure, with the ethanol monomer favoring the gauche conformation in the lowest energy structures. The increased speed of data collection and resulting sensitivity opens a new avenue into rotational studies of higher order clusters.

Interleaved electro-optic dual comb generation to expand bandwidth and scan rate for molecular spectroscopy and dynamics studies near 1.6 µm

A chirped-pulse interleaving method is reported for generation of dual optical frequency combs based on electro-optic phase modulators (EOM) in a free-running all-fiber based system. Methods are discussed to easily modify the linear scan rate and comb resolution by more than three orders of magnitude and to significantly increase the spectral bandwidth coverage. The agility of the technique is shown to both capture complex line shapes and to magnify rapid passage effects in spectroscopic and molecular dynamics studies of CO₂. These methods are well-suited for applications in the areas of remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions, molecular reaction dynamics, and sub-Doppler studies across the wide spectral regions accessible to EOMs.

Astrochemical Pathways to Complex Organic and Prebiotic Molecules: Experimental Perspectives for In Situ Solid-State Studies

A deep understanding of the origin of life requires the physical, chemical, and biological study of prebiotic systems and the comprehension of the mechanisms underlying their evolutionary steps. In this context, great attention is paid to the class of interstellar molecules known as "Complex Organic Molecules" (COMs), considered as possible precursors of prebiotic species. Although COMs have already been detected in different astrophysical environments (such as interstellar clouds, protostars, and protoplanetary disks) and in comets, the physical-chemical mechanisms underlying their formation are not yet fully understood. In this framework, a unique contribution comes from laboratory experiments specifically designed to mimic the conditions found in space. We present a review of experimental studies on the formation and evolution of COMs in the solid state, i.e., within ices of astrophysical interest, devoting special attention to the in situ detection and analysis techniques commonly used in laboratory astrochemistry. We discuss their main strengths and weaknesses and provide a perspective view on novel techniques, which may help in overcoming the current experimental challenges.

Gas-phase pyrolysis of trans 3-pentenenitrile: competition between direct and isomerization-mediated dissociation

The flash pyrolysis of trans 3-pentenenitrile (3-PN, CH₃-CH[double bond, length as m-dash]CH-CH₂-CN) was studied by combining the results of VUV photoionization mass spectra with broadband microwave spectra recorded as a function of the temperature of the pyrolysis tube. The two separated functional groups (vinyl and nitrile) open up isomerization as an initial step in competition with unimolecular dissociation. Primary products were detected by keeping the 3-PN concentration low and limiting reaction times to the traversal time of the gas in the pyrolysis tube (∼100 μs). The reaction is quenched and products are cooled by expansion into vacuum before interrogation over the 8-18 GHz region using chirped-pulse broadband methods. 118 nm VUV photoionization of the same reaction mixture provides a means of detecting all products with ionization potentials below 10.5 eV with minimal fragmentation. These results are combined with a detailed computational investigation of the C₅H₇N and related potential energy surfaces, leading to a consistent picture of the unimolecular decomposition of 3-PN. Loss of two H-atoms to form a 79 amu product is proven from its microwave transitions to contain trans-Z-2,4-pentadienenitrile, while no pyridine is observed. Methyl loss, HCN loss, and breaking the central C(2)-C(3) bond all occur following isomerization of the position of the double bond, thereby opening up low-energy pathways to these decomposition channels.

Differentiating and Quantifying Gas-Phase Conformational Isomers Using Coulomb Explosion Imaging

Conformational isomerism plays a crucial role in defining the physical and chemical properties and biological activity of molecules ranging from simple organic compounds to complex biopolymers. However, it is often a significant challenge to differentiate and separate these isomers experimentally as they can easily interconvert due to their low rotational energy barrier. Here, we use the momentum correlation of fragment ions produced after inner-shell photoionization to distinguish conformational isomers of 1,2-dibromoethane (C₂H₄Br₂). We demonstrate that the three-body breakup channel, C₂H₄⁺ + Br⁺ + Br⁺, contains signatures of both sequential and concerted breakup, which are decoupled to distinguish the geometries of two conformational isomers and to quantify their relative abundance. The sensitivity of our method to quantify these yields is established by measuring the relative abundance change with sample temperature, which agrees well with calculations. Our study paves the way for using Coulomb explosion imaging to track subtle molecular structural changes.

Millimeter-wave emission spectrometer based on direct digital synthesis

We present a millimeter-wave Fourier transform emission spectrometer whose design is based on the application of a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) up-converted into the Ku-band with subsequent frequency multiplication. The spectrometer covers the frequency range from 50 GHz to 110 GHz and from 150 GHz to 330 GHz. Owing to the fast frequency switching ability of the DDS in the spectrometer, the same radiation source is used both as a generator of short polarizing pulses and as a local oscillator for the heterodyne receiving system. Such a design provides intrinsically coherent reception that allows very long-term data averaging in the time domain, which improves considerably the maximum sensitivity of the spectrometer. The performances of the spectrometer including the data acquisition rate, the sensitivity, and the accuracy of line frequency measurements were tested on the rotational spectra of OCS, NH₂CHO, and CH₃CH₂CN. We show that in the frequency range of 150-300 GHz, the maximum sensitivity of the spectrometer for a 10 min integration time is around 10^-9 cm^-1 (the minimal value of the absorption coefficient of detectable rotational transition) in the case of narrowband single frequency pulse excitation, and around 10^-8 cm^-1 in the case of broadband chirped-pulse excitation.

Nonstatistical Reaction Dynamics

Nonstatistical dynamics is important for many chemical reactions. The Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory of unimolecular kinetics assumes a reactant molecule maintains a statistical microcanonical ensemble of vibrational states during its dissociation so that its unimolecular dynamics are time independent. Such dynamics results when the reactant's atomic motion is chaotic or irregular. Intrinsic non-RRKM dynamics occurs when part of the reactant's phase space consists of quasiperiodic/regular motion and a bottleneck exists, so that the unimolecular rate constant is time dependent. Nonrandom excitation of a molecule may result in short-time apparent non-RRKM dynamics. For rotational activation, the 2J + 1 K levels for a particular J may be highly mixed, making K an active degree of freedom, or K may be a good quantum number and an adiabatic degree of freedom. Nonstatistical dynamics is often important for bimolecular reactions and their intermediates and for product-energy partitioning of bimolecular and unimolecular reactions. Post–transition state dynamics is often highly complex and nonstatistical.

Photodissociation transition states characterized by chirped pulse millimeter wave spectroscopy

The 193-nm photolysis of CH₂CHCN illustrates the capability of chirped-pulse Fourier transform millimeter-wave spectroscopy to characterize transition states. We investigate the HCN, HNC photofragments in highly excited vibrational states using both frequency and intensity information. Measured relative intensities of J = 1-0 rotational transition lines yield vibrational-level population distributions (VPD). These VPDs encode the properties of the parent molecule transition state at which the fragment molecule was born. A Poisson distribution formalism, based on the generalized Franck-Condon principle, is proposed as a framework for extracting information about the transition-state structure from the observed VPD. We employ the isotopologue CH₂CDCN to disentangle the unimolecular 3-center DCN elimination mechanism from other pathways to HCN. Our experimental results reveal a previously unknown transition state that we tentatively associate with the HCN eliminated via a secondary, bimolecular reaction.

Intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution and the quantum ergodicity transition: a phase space perspective

The onset of facile intramolecular vibrational energy flow can be related to features in the connected network of anharmonic resonances in the classical phase space.

Rapid spectroscopic gas sensing using optical linear chirp chain

Spectroscopic gas analysis for monitoring transient events in fast processes requires high spectrum acquisition rate with low uncertainty; however, so far high-speed spectroscopic gas detection with sufficient spectral resolution and spectral span is still challenging. Here, we propose an innovative method based on optical linear chirp chain (OLCC) for rapid acquisition of high-resolution gas spectra with a rate up to the order of MHz with 100% duty cycle, spectral resolution at 10-MHz level and spectral span > 20 GHz. The OLCC is generated by high-speed optical modulation driven by a digital arbitrary waveform generator in combination with a four-wave-mixing process, exhibiting a highly linear frequency chirp (linearity error of ~10^-4) and low level of residual amplitude modulation (<1%). An image denoising method based on nonlocal means algorithm is exploited to reduce the high-frequency noise while guaranteeing the response time and spectral resolution. We demonstrate this method by monitoring a fast charging process of acetylene gas into a vacuumized gas cell, clearly unfolding gas pressure oscillations at μs time scale. Our proposed OLCC-based spectroscopic method opens up prospects for the development of high-speed spectrometers and optical sensors.

Relevance of the Resonance Junctions on the Arnold Web to Dynamical Tunneling and Eigenstate Delocalization

We study the competition and correspondence between the classical and quantum routes to intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) in a three degrees of freedom model effective Hamiltonian. Specifically, we focus on the classical and the quantum dynamics near the resonance junctions on the Arnold web that are formed by an intersection of independent resonances. The regime of interest models the IVR dynamics from highly excited initial states near dissociation thresholds of molecular systems wherein both classical and purely quantum, involving dynamical tunneling, routes to IVR coexist. In the vicinity of a resonance junction, classical chaos is inevitably present, and hence one expects the quantum IVR pathways to have a strong classical component as well. We show that with increasing resonant coupling strengths the classical component of IVR leads to a transition from coherent dynamical tunneling to incoherent dynamical tunneling. Furthermore, we establish that the quantum IVR dynamics can be predicted based on the structures on the classical Arnold web. In addition, we investigate the nature of the highly excited eigenstates to identify the quantum signatures of the multiplicity-2 junctions. For the parameter regimes studies herein, by projecting the eigenstates onto the Arnold web, we find that eigenstates in the vicinity of the junctions are primarily delocalized due to dynamical tunneling.

Multiplexed characterization of complex gas-phase mixtures combining chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy and VUV photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

We report details of the design and operation of a single apparatus that combines Chirped-Pulse Fourier Transform Microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (TOFMS). The supersonic expansion used for cooling samples is interrogated first by passing through the region between two microwave horns capable of broadband excitation and detection in the 2-18 GHz frequency region of the microwave. After passing through this region, the expansion is skimmed to form a molecular beam, before being probed with 118 nm (10.5 eV) single-photon VUV photoionization in a linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The two detection schemes are powerfully complementary to one another. CP-FTMW detects all components with significant permanent dipole moments. Rotational transitions provide high-resolution structural data. VUV TOFMS provides a gentle and general method for ionizing all components of a gas phase mixture with ionization thresholds below 10.5 eV, providing their molecular formulae. The advantages, complementarity, and limitations of the combined methods are illustrated through results on two gas-phase mixtures made up of (i) three furanic compounds, two of which are structural isomers of one another, and (ii) the effluent from a flash pyrolysis source with o-guaiacol as the precursor.

Detecting reactive islands using Lagrangian descriptors and the relevance to transition path sampling

It has been known for sometime now that isomerization reactions, classically, are mediated by phase space structures called reactive islands (RI). RIs provide one possible route to correct for the nonstatistical effects in the reaction dynamics. In this work, we map out the reactive islands for the two dimensional Müller-Brown model potential and show that the reactive islands are intimately linked to the issue of rare event sampling. In particular, we establish the sensitivity of the so called committor probabilities, useful quantities in the transition path sampling technique, to the hierarchical RI structures. Mapping out the RI structure for high dimensional systems, however, is a challenging task. Here, we show that the technique of Lagrangian descriptors is able to effectively identify the RI hierarchy in the model system. Based on our results, we suggest that the Lagrangian descriptors can be useful for detecting RIs in high dimensional systems.

Using radio astronomical receivers for molecular spectroscopic characterization in astrochemical laboratory simulations: A proof of concept

We present a proof of concept on the coupling of radio astronomical receivers and spectrometers with chemical reactors and the performances of the resulting setup for spectroscopy and chemical simulations in laboratory astrophysics. Several experiments including cold plasma generation and UV photochemistry were performed in a 40 cm long gas cell placed in the beam path of the Aries 40 m radio telescope receivers operating in the 41-49 GHz frequency range interfaced with fast Fourier transform spectrometers providing 2 GHz bandwidth and 38 kHz resolution. The impedance matching of the cell windows has been studied using different materials. The choice of the material and its thickness was critical to obtain a sensitivity identical to that of standard radio astronomical observations. Spectroscopic signals arising from very low partial pressures of CH₃OH, CH₃CH₂OH, HCOOH, OCS, CS, SO₂ (<10^-3 mbar) were detected in a few seconds. Fast data acquisition was achieved allowing for kinetic measurements in fragmentation experiments using electron impact or UV irradiation. Time evolution of chemical reactions involving OCS, O₂ and CS₂ was also observed demonstrating that reactive species, such as CS, can be maintained with high abundance in the gas phase during these experiments.

Time-Resolved Kinetic Chirped-Pulse Rotational Spectroscopy in a Room-Temperature Flow Reactor

Chirped-pulse Fourier transform millimeter-wave spectroscopy is a potentially powerful tool for studying chemical reaction dynamics and kinetics. Branching ratios of multiple reaction products and intermediates can be measured with unprecedented chemical specificity; molecular isomers, conformers, and vibrational states have distinct rotational spectra. Here we demonstrate chirped-pulse spectroscopy of vinyl cyanide photoproducts in a flow tube reactor at ambient temperature of 295 K and pressures of 1-10 μbar. This in situ and time-resolved experiment illustrates the utility of this novel approach to investigating chemical reaction dynamics and kinetics. Following 193 nm photodissociation of CH₂CHCN, we observe rotational relaxation of energized HCN, HNC, and HCCCN photoproducts with 10 μs time resolution and sample the vibrational population distribution of HCCCN. The experimental branching ratio HCN/HCCCN is compared with a model based on RRKM theory using high-level ab initio calculations, which were in turn validated by comparisons to Active Thermochemical Tables enthalpies.

Rigid Single Carbon-Carbon Bond That Does Not Rotate in Water

Carbon-carbon bond is one of the most ubiquitous molecular building blocks for natural and man-made materials. Rotational isomerization is fundamentally important for understanding the structure and reactivity of chemical and biological molecules. Reported herein is the first demonstration that a single C-C bond does not rotate in water. The two distal C-S bonds in both 1,2-ethanedithiolate ((-)S-CH2-CH2-S(-), 1,2-EDT(2-)) and 2,3-butanedithiolate (2,3-BuDT(2-)) are exclusively in the trans conformer with reference to their respective center single C-C bond. In contrast, both trans and gauche conformers are observed in neutral 1,2-ethanedithiol (1,2-EDT) and 2, 3-butanedithiol (2,3-BuDT). The insight from this work should be important for understanding the charge effect on the molecular conformation in aqueous solutions.

Chiral Analysis Using Broadband Rotational Spectroscopy

broadband microwave spectroscopy is a proven tool to precisely determine molecular properties of gas-phase molecules. Recent developments make it applicable to investigate chiral molecules. Enantiomers can be differentiated, and the enantiomeric excess and, indirectly, the absolute configuration can be determined in a molecule-selective manner. The resonant character and high resolution of rotational spectroscopy provide a unique mixture compatibility. Future directions, such as extending the technique to chemical analysis, are discussed.

A chirped-pulse Fourier-transform microwave/pulsed uniform flow spectrometer. II. Performance and applications for reaction dynamics

This second paper in a series of two reports on the performance of a new instrument for studying chemical reaction dynamics and kinetics at low temperatures. Our approach employs chirped-pulse Fourier-transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy to probe photolysis and bimolecular reaction products that are thermalized in pulsed uniform flows. Here we detail the development and testing of a new K(a)-band CP-FTMW spectrometer in combination with the pulsed flow system described in Paper I [J. M. Oldham, C. Abeysekera, B. Joalland, L. N. Zack, K. Prozument, I. R. Sims, G. B. Park, R. W. Field, and A. G. Suits, J. Chem. Phys. 141, 154202 (2014)]. This combination delivers broadband spectra with MHz resolution and allows monitoring, on the μs timescale, of the appearance of transient reaction products. Two benchmark reactive systems are used to illustrate and characterize the performance of this new apparatus: the photodissociation of SO2 at 193 nm, for which the vibrational populations of the SO product are monitored, and the reaction between CN and C2H2, for which the HCCCN product is detected in its vibrational ground state. The results show that the combination of these two well-matched techniques, which we refer to as chirped-pulse in uniform flow, also provides insight into the vibrational and rotational relaxation kinetics of the nascent reaction products. Future directions are discussed, with an emphasis on exploring the low temperature chemistry of complex polyatomic systems.

Conformation-Selective Resonant Photoelectron Spectroscopy via Dipole-Bound States of Cold Anions

Molecular conformation is important in chemistry and biochemistry. Conformers connected by low energy barriers can only be observed at low temperatures and are difficult to be separated. Here we report a new method to obtain conformation-selective spectroscopic information about dipolar molecular radicals via dipole-bound excited states of the corresponding anions cooled in a cryogenic ion trap. We observed two conformers of cold 3-hydroxyphenoxide anions [m-HO(C6H4)O(-)] in high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy and measured different electron affinities, 18,850(8) and 18,917(5) cm(-1), for the syn and anti 3-hydroxyphenoxy radicals, respectively. We also observed dipole-bound excited states for m-HO(C6H4)O(-) with different binding energies for the two conformers due to the different dipole moments of the corresponding 3-hydroxyphenoxy radicals. Excitations to selected vibrational levels of the dipole-bound states result in conformation-selective photoelectron spectra. This method should be applicable to conformation-selective spectroscopic studies of any anions with dipolar neutral cores.

Chirped-Pulse millimeter-Wave spectroscopy for dynamics and kinetics studies of pyrolysis reactions

A Chirped-Pulse millimeter-Wave (CPmmW) spectrometer is applied to the study of chemical reaction products that result from pyrolysis in a Chen nozzle heated to 1000-1800 K. Millimeter-wave rotational spectroscopy unambiguously determines, for each polar reaction product, the species, the conformers, relative concentrations, conversion percentage from precursor to each product, and, in some cases, vibrational state population distributions. A chirped-pulse spectrometer can, within the frequency range of a single chirp, sample spectral regions of up to ∼10 GHz and simultaneously detect many reaction products. Here we introduce a modification to the CPmmW technique in which multiple chirps of different spectral content are applied to a molecular beam pulse that contains the pyrolysis reaction products. This technique allows for controlled allocation of its sensitivity to specific molecular transitions and effectively doubles the bandwidth of the spectrometer. As an example, the pyrolysis reaction of ethyl nitrite, CH3CH2ONO, is studied, and CH3CHO, H2CO, and HNO products are simultaneously observed and quantified, exploiting the multi-chirp CPmmW technique. Rotational and vibrational temperatures of some product molecules are determined. Subsequent to supersonic expansion from the heated nozzle, acetaldehyde molecules display a rotational temperature of 4 ± 1 K. Vibrational temperatures are found to be controlled by the collisional cooling in the expansion, and to be both species- and vibrational mode-dependent. Rotational transitions of vibrationally excited formaldehyde in levels ν4, 2ν4, 3ν4, ν2, ν3, and ν6 are observed and effective vibrational temperatures for modes 2, 3, 4, and 6 are determined and discussed.

Product Branching in the Low Temperature Reaction of CN with Propyne by Chirped-Pulse Microwave Spectroscopy in a Uniform Supersonic Flow

A new chirped-pulse/uniform flow (CPUF) spectrometer has been developed and used to determine product branching in a multichannel reaction. With this technique, bimolecular reactions can be initiated in a cold, thermalized, high-density molecular flow and a broadband microwave spectrum acquired for all products with rotational transitions within a chosen frequency window. In this work, the CN + CH3CCH reaction was found to yield HCN via a direct H-abstraction reaction, whereas indirect addition/elimination pathways to HCCCN, CH3CCCN, and CH2CCHCN were also probed. From these observations, quantitative branching ratios were established for all products as 12(5)%, 66(4)%, 22(6)%, and 0(8)% into HCN, HCCCN, CH3CCCN, and CH2CCHCN, respectively. The values are consistent with statistical calculations based on new ab initio results at the CBS-QB3 level of theory. This work is a demonstration of CPUF as a powerful technique for quantitatively determining the branching into polyatomic products from a bimolecular reaction.

Phase Dependence of Double-Resonance Experiments in Rotational Spectroscopy

We here report on double-resonance experiments using broadband chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy that can facilitate spectral assignment and yield information about weak transitions with high resolution and sensitivity. Using the diastereomers menthone and isomenthone, we investigate the dependence of pumping a radio frequency transition on both the amplitude and phase of the signal from a microwave transition with which it shares a common rotational level. We observe a strong phase change when scanning the radio frequency through molecular resonance. The direction of the phase change depends on the energy level arrangement, that is, if it is progressive or regressive. The experimental results can be simulated using the three-level optical Bloch equations and described with the AC Stark effect, giving rise to an Autler-Townes splitting.

Breaking of a bond: when is it statistical?

Unimolecular dissociation dynamics of a model three degree of freedom triatomic molecule is studied in order to understand the mechanisms for deviations from statisticality. Performing a wavelet based time–frequency analysis of the dynamics allows for the dynamics to be followed on the network of nonlinear resonances, also called as the Arnold web. The results indicate that the long lifetime trajectories spend a considerable amount of time trapped near junctions in the web. It is argued that characterizing the dynamics near such junctions might lead to deeper insights into the origins of nonstatistical dynamics.

A Signature of Roaming Dynamics in the Thermal Decomposition of Ethyl Nitrite: Chirped-Pulse Rotational Spectroscopy and Kinetic Modeling

Chirped-pulse (CP) Fourier transform rotational spectroscopy is uniquely suited for near-universal quantitative detection and structural characterization of mixtures that contain multiple molecular and radical species. In this work, we employ CP spectroscopy to measure product branching and extract information about the reaction mechanism, guided by kinetic modeling. Pyrolysis of ethyl nitrite, CH3CH2ONO, is studied in a Chen type flash pyrolysis reactor at temperatures of 1000-1800 K. The branching between HNO, CH2O, and CH3CHO products is measured and compared to the kinetic models generated by the Reaction Mechanism Generator software. We find that roaming CH3CH2ONO → CH3CHO + HNO plays an important role in the thermal decomposition of ethyl nitrite, with its rate, at 1000 K, comparable to that of the radical elimination channel CH3CH2ONO → CH3CH2O + NO. HNO is a signature of roaming in this system.

Dynamical traps lead to the slowing down of intramolecular vibrational energy flow

The phenomenon of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) is at the heart of chemical reaction dynamics. Statistical rate theories, assuming instantaneous IVR, predict exponential decay of the population with the properties of the transition state essentially determining the mechanism. However, there is growing evidence that IVR competes with the reaction timescales, resulting in deviations from the exponential rate law. Dynamics cannot be ignored in such cases for understanding the reaction mechanisms. Significant insights in this context have come from the state space model of IVR, which predicts power law behavior for the rates with the power law exponent, an effective state space dimensionality, being a measure of the nature and extent of the IVR dynamics. However, whether the effective IVR dimensionality can vary with time and whether the mechanism for the variation is of purely quantum or classical origins are issues that remain unresolved. Such multiple power law scalings can lead to surprising mode specificity in the system, even above the threshold for facile IVR. In this work, choosing the well-studied thiophosgene molecule as an example, we establish the anisotropic and anomalous nature of the quantum IVR dynamics and show that multiple power law scalings do manifest in the system. More importantly, we show that the mechanism of the observed multiple power law scaling has classical origins due to a combination of trapping near resonance junctions in the network of classical nonlinear resonances at short to intermediate times and the influence of weak higher-order resonances at relatively longer times.

Specific Chemical Reactivities of Spatially Separated 3-Aminophenol Conformers with Cold Ca+ Ions

Many molecules exhibit multiple rotational isomers (conformers) that interconvert thermally and are difficult to isolate. Consequently, a precise characterization of their role in chemical reactions has proven challenging. We have probed the reactivity of specific conformers by using an experimental technique based on their spatial separation in a molecular beam by electrostatic deflection. The separated conformers react with a target of Coulomb-crystallized ions in a trap. In the reaction of Ca+ with 3-aminophenol, we find a twofold larger rate constant for the cis compared with the trans conformer (differentiated by the O–H bond orientation). This result is explained by conformer-specific differences in the long-range ion-molecule interaction potentials. Our approach demonstrates the possibility of controlling reactivity through selection of conformational states.

A direct digital synthesis chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer

Chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectrometers have become the instrument of choice for acquiring rotational spectra, due to their high sensitivity, fast acquisition rate, and large bandwidth. Here we present the design and capabilities of a recently constructed CP-FTMW spectrometer using direct digital synthesis (DDS) as a new method for chirped pulse generation, through both a suite of extensive microwave characterizations and deep averaging of the 10-14 GHz spectrum of jet-cooled acetone. The use of DDS is more suited for in situ applications of CP-FTMW spectroscopy, as it reduces the size, weight, and power consumption of the chirp generation segment of the spectrometer all by more than an order of magnitude, while matching the performance of traditional designs. The performance of the instrument was further improved by the use of a high speed digitizer with dedicated signal averaging electronics, which facilitates a data acquisition rate of 2.1 kHz.