Molecular vibrations infrared spectra

Infrared Spectroscopy. The infrared spectroscopy of adsorbates has been studied for many years, especially for chemisorbed species (see Section XVIII-2C). In the case of physisorption, where the molecule remains intact, one is interested in how the molecular symmetry is altered on adsorption. Perhaps the conceptually simplest case is that of H2 on NaCl(lOO). Being homo-polar, Ha by itself has no allowed vibrational absorption (except for some weak collision-induced transitions) but when adsorbed, the reduced symmetry allows a vibrational spectrum to be observed. Fig. XVII-16 shows the infrared spectrum at 30 K for various degrees of monolayer coverage [96] (the adsorption is Langmuirian with half-coverage at about 10 atm). The bands labeled sf are for transitions of H2 on a smooth face and are from the 7 = 0 and J = 1 rotational states Q /fR) is assigned as a combination band. The bands labeled... 

The molecular mass determined osmometrically corresponds to the formula S5O. The SO stretching vibration was observed in the infrared spectrum at 1119 cm (at -65 °G) indicating an exocyclic sulfoxide group similar to the one in SsO (see below). At -50 °G the solution of S5O may be kept for several days without decomposition which usually results in a Tyndall effect caused by a colloidal polymeric sulfuroxide which is the expected decomposition product. At 25 °G some decomposition already occurs within... 

Many characteristic molecular vibrations occur at frequencies in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. We routinely analyze polymers by measuring the infrared frequencies that are absorbed by these molecular vibrations. Given a suitable calibration method we can obtain both qualitative and quantitative information regarding copolymer composition from an infrared spectrum. We can often identify unknown polymers by comparing their infrared spectra with electronic libraries containing spectra of known materials. 

The theory of electron-transfer reactions presented in Chapter 6 was mainly based on classical statistical mechanics. While this treatment is reasonable for the reorganization of the outer sphere, the inner-sphere modes must strictly be treated by quantum mechanics. It is well known from infrared spectroscopy that molecular vibrational modes possess a discrete energy spectrum, and that at room temperature the spacing of these levels is usually larger than the thermal energy kT. Therefore we will reconsider electron-transfer reactions from a quantum-mechanical viewpoint that was first advanced by Levich and Dogonadze [1]. In this course we will rederive several of, the results of Chapter 6, show under which conditions they are valid, and obtain generalizations that account for the quantum nature of the inner-sphere modes. By necessity this chapter contains more mathematics than the others, but the calculations axe not particularly difficult. Readers who are not interested in the mathematical details can turn to the summary presented in Section 6. 

Pyridine. Pyridine and its methyl substituted derivatives (picolines and lutidines) were found to polymerize electrochemically and, under certain circumstances, catalytically. This behavior was not expected because usually pyridine undergoes electrophilic substitution and addition slowly, behaving like a deactivated benzene ring. The interaction of pyridine with a Ni(100) surface did not indicate any catalytic polymerization. Adsorption of pyridine below 200 K resulted in pyridine adsorbing with the ring parallel to the surface. The infrared spectrum of pyridine adsorbed at 200 K showed no evidence of either ring vibrations or CH stretches (Figure 5). Desorption of molecular pyridine occurred at 250 K, and above 300 K pyridine underwent a... 

The complexity of the physical properties of liquid water is largely determined by the presence of a three-dimensional hydrogen bond (HB) network [1]. The HB s undergo continuous transformations that occur on ultrafast timescales. The molecular vibrations are especially sensitive to the presence of the HB network. For example, the spectrum of the OH-stretch vibrational mode is substantially broadened and shifted towards lower frequencies if the OH-group is involved in the HB. Therefore, the microscopic structure and the dynamics of water are expected to manifest themselves in the IR vibrational spectrum, and, therefore, can be studied by methods of ultrafast infrared spectroscopy. It has been shown in a number of ultrafast spectroscopic experiments and computer simulations that dephasing dynamics of the OH-stretch vibrations of water molecules in the liquid phase occurs on sub-picosecond timescales [2-14],... 

Both the Raman and the infrared spectrum yield a partial description of the internal vibrational motion of the molecule in terms of the normal vibrations of the constituent atoms. Neither type of spectrum alone gives a complete description of the pattern of molecular vibration, and, by analysis of the difference between the Raman and the infrared spectrum, additional information about the molecular structure can sometimes be inferred. Physical chemists have made extremely effective use of such comparisons in the elucidation of the finer structural details of small symmetrical molecules, such as methane and benzene. But the mathematical techniques of vibrational analysis are. not yet sufficiently developed to permit the extension of these differential studies to the Raman and infrared spectra of the more complex molecules that constitute the main body of both organic and inorganic chemistry. 

Infrared spectroscopy can provide a great deal of information on molecular identity and orientation at the electrode surface [51-53]. Molecular vibrational modes can also be sensitive to the presence of ionic species and variations in electrode potential [51,52]. In situ reflectance measurements in the infrared spectrum engender the same considerations of polarization and incident angles as in UV/visible reflectance. However, since water and other solvents employed in electrochemistry are strong IR absorbers, there is the additional problem of reduced throughput. This problem is alleviated with thin-layer spectroelectro-chemical cells [53]. 

Most SHG studies involve incident energies in the visible or near-infrared spectrum. Infrared SHG studies are hindered by the current lack of sufficiently sensitive IR detectors. However, the sum frequency generation (SFG) technique allows one to obtain surface-specific vibrational spectra. In SFG, two lasers are focused on the sample surface, one with a fixed frequency in the visible and one with a tunable range of IR frequencies. The sample surface experiences the sum of these frequencies. When the frequency of the infrared component corresponds to a molecular vibrational mode, there is an increase in the total SHG signal, which is detected at the visible frequency [66]. The application of such... 

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