Hydration theory overview

Table 6.3 provides a summary of the different microscopic techniques that have been applied to hydrate studies and the type of information that can be obtained from these tools. The following discussion provides a brief overview of the application of diffraction and spectroscopy to study hydrate structure and dynamics, and formation/decomposition kinetics. For information on the principles and theory of these techniques, the reader is referred to the following texts on x-ray diffraction (Hammond, 2001), neutron scattering (Higgins and Benoit, 1996), NMR spectroscopy (Abragam, 1961 Schmidt-Rohr and Spiess, 1994), and Raman spectroscopy (Lewis and Edwards, 2001). 

This article provides a brief overview of the theory of IR spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy (for more in-depth descriptions of these methods see Refs. [1-3]). This is followed by a review of vibrational spectroscopic studies performed on clathrate hydrates (a class of inclusion compound) and macrocyclic suprainolecular compounds. Clathrate hydrates were highlighted in this article because of all the clathrate compounds, they are particularly amenable to vibrational spectroscopy and are of great industrial significance. Similar IR/Raman methods can be applied to other well-known clathrate compounds. including quinol and urea " clathrates. Finally, future directions on the use of vibrational spectroscopy in supramolecular compounds will be given. 

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