Gas phase - studies

The format is as before, with the addition of one small section on the use of lasers in isotope separation and remote sensing of atmospheric pollutants. Emphasis is again placed upon the physical fates of excited molecules, and in particular on studies of isolated molecules. 

Hydrogen elimination has been found to be an unimportant process in the photolysis of neopentane at 7.6, 8.4, and 10.00 eV photon energies, the important primary processes being (2) and (3).2 Reaction (3) increases in importance over 

The radiative lifetime of the A2A state of CH has been measured as 460 70 ns, using a molecular ion beam method.3 

The CH4+ ion has been observed to dissociate to the methyl cation and a hydrogen atom [reaction (6)] upon irradiation with white light from a 2.5 kW 

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Figure B2.5.1 schematically illustrates a typical flow-tube set-up. In gas-phase studies, it serves mainly two purposes. On the one hand it allows highly reactive shortlived reactant species, such as radicals or atoms, to be prepared at well-defined concentrations in an inert buffer gas. On the other hand, the flow replaces the time dependence, t, of a reaction by the dependence on the distance v from the point where the reactants are mixed by the simple transfomiation with the flow velocity vy...

Infrared absorption properties of 2-aminothiazole were reported with those of 52 other thiazoles (113). N-Deuterated 2-aminothiazole and 2-amino-4-methylthiazo e were submitted to intensive infrared investigations. All the assignments were performed using gas-phase studies of the shape of the vibration-rotation bands, dichroism, isotopic substitution, and separation of frequencies related to H-bonded and free species (115). With its ten atoms, this compound has 24 fundamental vibrations 18 for the skeleton and 6 for NHo. For the skeleton (Cj symmetry) 13 in-plane vibrations of A symmetry (2v(- h, 26c-h- Irc-N- and 7o)r .cieu.J and... 

Computer simulation techniques offer the ability to study the potential energy surfaces of chemical reactions to a high degree of quantitative accuracy [4]. Theoretical studies of chemical reactions in the gas phase are a major field and can provide detailed insights into a variety of processes of fundamental interest in atmospheric and combustion chemistry. In the past decade theoretical methods were extended to the study of reaction processes in mesoscopic systems such as enzymatic reactions in solution, albeit to a more approximate level than the most accurate gas-phase studies. 

Despite its apparent simplicity, the PK pyrrole synthesis has retained its mystique since being discovered. Several investigations into the PK mechanism have been reported, including a gas phase study. Current evidence (intermediate isolation, kinetics, isotope effects) suggests the following (abbreviated) mechanism for the formation of pyrrole 13. However, the specific PK mechanism is often dependent on pH, solvent, and amine and dicarbonyl structure, especially with regard to the ringclosing step. 

Gas-phase studies where relevant tautomeric compounds are described are ihore scarce, but include uracil, thymine, and adenine [97CPL(269)39]. In the case of the 2-pyridone/hydroxypyridine equilibrium, the intensity of the OH and NH stretching vibrations was measured for eight temperatures in the range from 428 to 533 K in the gas phase. This allows determination otAH and AS for the equilibrium (92JPC1562). 

Roughly speaking the collisions are moderately weak. This conclusion is verified by comparison of theoretical and experimental data within the whole range of the gas phase studied in [89]. 

Experimental limitations initially limited the types of molecular systems that could be studied by TRIR spectroscopy. The main obstacles were the lack of readily tunable intense IR sources and sensitive fast IR detectors. Early TRIR work focused on gas phase studies because long pathlengths and/or multipass cells could be used without interference from solvent IR bands. Pimentel and co-workers first developed a rapid scan dispersive IR spectrometer (using a carbon arc broadband IR source) with time and spectral resolution on the order of 10 ps and 1 cm , respectively, and reported the gas phase IR spectra of a number of fundamental organic intermediates (e.g., CH3, CD3, and Cp2). Subsequent gas phase approaches with improved time and spectral resolution took advantage of pulsed IR sources. 

An interesting gas-phase study of the photolysis of ftmy-l-phenyl-2-butene has been published by Comtet.(39,40) He has found that (a) it was not possible to quench the formation of the cyclopropane product under conditions that reduced the fluorescence quantum yield, (b) sensitization by acetophenone only gave cis-trans isomerization, and (c) the quantum yield of cyclopropane formation in the direct photolysis decreases as n-butane is added to the reaction mixture. Comtet suggests that the data are consistent with a reaction from the second triplet state. 

Considerable interest in the subject of C-H bond activation at transition-metal centers has developed in the past several years (2), stimulated by the observation that even saturated hydrocarbons can react with little or no activation energy under appropriate conditions. Interestingly, gas phase studies of the reactions of saturated hydrocarbons at transition-metal centers were reported as early as 1973 (3). More recently, ion cyclotron resonance and ion beam experiments have provided many examples of the activation of both C-H and C-C bonds of alkanes by transition-metal ions in the gas phase (4). These gas phase studies have provided a plethora of highly speculative reaction mechanisms. Conventional mechanistic probes, such as isotopic labeling, have served mainly to indicate the complexity of "simple" processes such as the dehydrogenation of alkanes (5). More sophisticated techniques, such as multiphoton infrared laser activation (6) and the determination of kinetic energy release distributions (7), have revealed important features of the potential energy surfaces associated with the reactions of small molecules at transition metal centers. 

Presently, the gas phase photofragmentation of several transition metal cluster complexes is reviewed. The techniques employed for these gas phase studies rely on sensitive ionization detection and the use of a broad range of excitation energies. 

Nevertheless, we were able to develop a transient absorption apparatus involving IR probe radiation that is suitable for gas phase studies, as have a number of other groups either coincident with or subsequent to our work [1]. In the remainder of this article we will discuss the apparatus and the results of our studies on three prototypical metal carbonyl species Fe(C0>5, Cr(C0>5 and Mn2(CO)] o The discussion in this article will center on the nature of the photolytically generated coordinatively unsaturated species, their kinetic behavior and photophysical information regarding these species. This latter information has enabled us to comment on the mechanism for photodissociation in these systems. Since most of the results that will be discussed have been presented elsewhere [3-10], we will concentrate on a presentation of data that illustrates the most important features that have come out of our research and directly related research regarding the kinetics, photophysics and photochemistry of coordinatively unsaturated metal carbonyls. 

Solution studies of the complexes outlined in Table 3 are in general agreement that they remain aggregated in solution, with the most common form being dimers.325 Solution studies of 300 in arene solvent indicate that at least two independent aggregates coexist.322 The most likely scenario from the data available is that a dimer-hexamer equilibrium is present in solution. Gas-phase studies of the hydrazides have proved to be problematic due to decomposition of the complexes on volatilization. 

Compared with the corresponding organosilicon compounds, the Ge derivatives are less stable and decompose at lower temperatures21. Thermolysis mechanisms as deduced from gas-phase studies are consistent with the presence of germylenes as intermediates. 

Table I summarizes the bond energies for the M-OH bond that result from the electrochemical data and this calculation. The values compare closely with those for gas-phase M-0 bond energies (15). A recent gas-phase study estimates that the Au-OH bond energy is greater than 62.5 kcal (16).

I would like to thank Ian Dance and Gary Willett for help and encouragement in the gas-phase studies that have lead to this chapter. I would also like to thank the Australian Re-... 

Gas-phase studies of a-silyl substituted carbenium ions show that these intermediates exist only in a very flat potential well (5, 7, 8, 9 ). They undergo fast 1,2-H or -alkyl shifts, producing the more stable silicenium or p-silyl substituted carbenium ions. 

The major activity in gas-phase studies now depends on the use of modem techniques such as ion cyclotron resonance (ICR). Thus, as already mentioned (Section ELD). Fujio, Mclver and Taft131 measured the gas-phase acidities, relative to phenol, of 38 meta- or para-substituted phenols by the ICR equilibrium constant method, and their results for +R substituents led them to suggest that such substituents in aqueous solution exerted solvation-assisted resonance effects. It was later163 shown by comparison of gas-phase acidities of phenols with acidities of phenols in solution in DMSO that solvation-assisted resonance effects could also occur even when the solvent did not have hydrogen-bond donor properties. Indeed for p-NC>2 and certain other substituents these effects appeared to be larger than in aqueous solution. 

DR. RODERICK CANNON (University of East Anglia) I d like to hazard a guess that much of the progress in understanding electron transfer reactions will come in the future from studies on the solid state, on the one hand, and from gas phase studies on the other. And I have felt, having reviewed the literature fairly recently, that both of those areas have been most neglected. 

To date, only few very recent gas-phase studies on this subject can be retrieved from the literature, i.e., (i) a gas-phase study on the displacement of several amino acids from the chiral amido esorcinarene 9 (Scheme 9) carried out by Speranza and coworkers using an electrospray-ionization Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (ESl-FT-lCR) mass spectrometer," " and (ii) Lebrilla and coworkers study on the ability of the achiral calix[4]arene 7 and calix[6]arene 8 to form inclusion complexes with natural amino acids under matrix-assisted laser... 

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