Overview of Vibrational Spectroscopy

Vibrational modes of water. [Used with permission from Marivi Fernandez-Serra.] 

Principles of Inorganic Chemistry, First Edition. Brian W. Pfennig. 

Definition of the normal coordinate q in the stretching vibration of a diatomic molecule /AX. 

Harmonic oscillator (ball on a spring) model of molecular vibration. 

Harmonic oscillator model of molecular vibrations, showing the spacing of the different quantum mechanical energy levels. 

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Infrared (IR) and Raman are both well established as methods of vibrational spectroscopy. Both have been used for decades as tools for the identification and characterization of polymeric materials in fact, the requirement for a method of analysis synthetic polymers was the basis for the original development of analytical infrared instrumentation during World War II. It is assumed that the reader has a general understanding of analytical chemistry, and a basic understanding of the principles of spectroscopy. A general overview of vibrational spectroscopy is provided in Sec. 5 for those unfamiliar with the infrared and Raman techniques. 

T.L. Threlfall and J.M. Chalmers, Vibrational spectroscopy of solid-state forms - introduction, principles and overview, in Applications of Vibrational Spectroscopy in Pharmaceutical Research and Development, D.E. Pivonka, J.M. Chalmers, and RR. Griffiths (Eds), Wiley-Interscience, New York, 2007. 

II. OVERVIEW OF VIBRATIONAL DEPHASING AND COHERENT RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY... 

For a comprehensive overview of Raman spectroscopy fundamentals, theory, and applications, see (a) McCreery, R. L. in Chemical Analysis Vol 157, Wmefordner J. D, Ed. Wiley New York, 2000. (b) Lewis, I. R. Edwards, H. G. M. Handbook of Raman Spectroscopy, Erom the Research Laboratory to the Process Line Marcel Dekker New York, 2001. (c) Pivonka, D. E. Chalmers, J. M. Griffiths, R R. Eds. Applications of Vibrational Spectroscopy in Pharmaceutical Research and Development WUey New York, 2007. (d) Dollish, F. R. Fateley, W. G. Bentley, F. F. Characteristic Raman Frequencies of Organic Compounds Wiley New York, 1974. 

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. 

Interest in the vibrational spectra of adsorbed molecules is at least 40 years old. The past ten years have seen the development of many novel techniques for determining the vibrational spectra of adsorbed species and this symposium brings together a state-of-the-art survey of these techniques. In one s ethusiasm for the recent advances made in any subject there is a tendency to forget the parent technique and its steady contribution to our knowledge. In this case, the parent is simple transmission infrared spectroscopy. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to briefly present an overview of some of the developments which have occurred in the application of transmission infrared spectroscopy to surface studies with emphasis upon results generated in the past 10 years. For more detailed information on work published prior to 1967 the reader is referred to three texts which have appeared on this subject (1-3). 

The identification of species adsorbed on surfaces has preoccupied chemists and physicists for many years. Of all the techniques used to determine the structure of molecules, interpretation of the vibrational spectrum probably occupies first place. This is also true for adsorbed molecules, and identification of the vibrational modes of chemisorbed and physisorbed species has contributed greatly to our understanding of both the underlying surface and the adsorbed molecules. The most common method for determining the vibrational modes of a molecule is by direct observation of adsorptions in the infrared region of the spectrum. Surface spectroscopy is no exception and by far the largest number of publications in the literature refer to the infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed molecules. Up to this time, the main approach has been the use of conventional transmission IR and work in this area up to 1967 has been summarized in three books. The first chapter in this volume, by Hair, presents a necessarily brief overview of this work with emphasis upon some of the developments that have occurred since 1967. 

The fundamental requirement for the existence of molecular dissymmetry is that the molecule cannot possess any improper axes of rofation, the minimal interpretation of which implies additional interaction with light whose electric vectors are circularly polarized. This property manifests itself in an apparent rotation of the plane of linearly polarized light (polarimetry and optical rotatory dispersion) [1-5], or in a preferential absorption of either left- or right-circularly polarized light (circular dichroism) that can be observed in spectroscopy associated with either transitions among electronic [3-7] or vibrational states [6-8]. Optical activity has also been studied in the excited state of chiral compounds [9,10]. An overview of the instrumentation associated with these various chiroptical techniques is available [11]. 

Several recent reviews have presented broad overviews of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy [3-6], We shall concentrate instead on a selected, rather small subset of femtosecond time-resolved experiments carried out (and to a very limited extent, proposed) to date. In particular, we shall review experiments in which phase-coherent electronic or, more often, nuclear motion is induced and monitored with time resolution of less than 100 fs. The main reason for selectivity on this basis is the rather ubiquitous appearance of phase-coherent effects (especially vibrational phase coherence) in femtosecond spectroscopy. As will be discussed, nearly any spectroscopy experiment on molecular or condensed-phase systems is likely to involve phase-coherent vibrational motion if the time scale becomes short enough. Since the coherent spectral bandwidth of a femtosecond pulse often exceeds collective or molecular vibrational frequencies, such a pulse may perturb and be perturbed by a medium in a qualitatively different manner than a longer pulse of comparable peak power. The resulting spectroscopic possibilities are of special interest to these reviewers. 

An overview of basic physics necessary to understand neutron scattering experiments is presented below. This section is a brief introduction to vibrational spectroscopy with neutrons. More details can be found in Ref. [Lovesey 1984], Experienced readers should ignore this rather superficial introduction. 

In the development of zeolite science, infrared spectroscopy has been one of the major tools for structure and reactivity characterization. However, the field of zeolite Raman spectroscopy is gaining importance. The Raman effect is an intrinsically weak phenomenon, and Raman spectra of zeolites are often obscured by a broad fluorescence. Just like IR spectroscopy, Raman can detect small. X-ray amorphous zeolite particles. Therefore, Raman spectroscopy has been used to examine zeolite synthesis mixtures with ex-situ methods (with separation of solid and liquid) and in-situ methods. In this work we give an overview of the zeolite framework vibrations, zeolite synthesis, adsorption on zeolites and metal substitution and ion exchange in zeolites. 

The chapters fall into major sections covering optical spectroscopy, vibrational spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and X-ray spectroscopy. Areas such as nuclear magnetic resonance which have been described extensively in recent volumes of this series have not been included. A general overview of the contents of this volume and examples of problems or situations to which the different approaches have been applied are described in the first chapter. 

Spectroscopic methods can provide fast, non-destructive analytical measurements that can replace conventional analytical methods in many cases. The non-destructive nature of optical measurements makes them very attractive for stability testing. In the future, spectroscopic methods will be increasingly used for pharmaceutical stability analysis. This chapter will focus on quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical products. The second section of the chapter will provide an overview of basic vibrational spectroscopy and modern spectroscopic technology. The third section of this chapter is an introduction to multivariate analysis (MVA) and chemometrics. MVA is essential for the quantitative analysis of NIR and in many cases Raman spectral data. Growth in MVA has been aided by the availability of high quality software and powerful personal computers. Section 11.4 is a review of the qualification of NIR and Raman spectrometers. The criteria for NIR and Raman equipment qualification are described in USP chapters <1119> and < 1120>. The relevant highlights of the new USP chapter on analytical instrument qualification <1058> are also covered. Section 11.5 is a discussion of method validation for quantitative analytical methods based on multivariate statistics. Based on the USP chapter for NIR <1119>, the discussion of method validation for chemometric-based methods is also appropriate for Raman spectroscopy. The criteria for these MVA-based methods are the same as traditional analytical methods accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity, and robustness however, the ways they are described and evaluated can be different. 

Although Raman spectroscopy does not employ absorption of infrared radiation as its fundamental principle of operation, it is combined with other infrared spectroscopies into a joint section. Results obtained with various Raman spectroscopies as described below cover vibrational properties of molecules at interfaces complementing infrared spectroscopy in many cases. A general overview of applications of laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS) as applied to electrochemical interfaces has been provided [342]. Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) enables spatially resolved Raman spectroscopic investigations of multilayered systems based on the collection of scattered light from spatial regions of the samples offset from the point of illumination [343]. So far this technique has only been applied in various fields outside electrochemistry [344]. Fourth-order coherent Raman spectroscopy has been developed and applied to solid/liquid interfaces [345] applications in electrochemical systems have not been reported so far. 

A key requirement for in-situ spectroscopic methods in these systems is surface specificity. At Uquid/Uquid junctions, separating interfacial signals from the overwhelmingly large bulk responses in linear spectroscopy is not a trivial issue. On the other hand, non-Unear spectroscopy is a powerful tool for investigating the properties of adsorbed species, but the success of this approach is closely linked to the choice of appropriate probe molecules (besides the remarkably sensitivity of sum frequency generation on vibrational modes of water at interfaces). This chapter presents an overview of linear and non-linear optical methods recently employed in the study of electrified liquid/liquid interfaces. Most of the discussion will be concentrated on the junctions between two bulk liquids under potentio-static control, although many of these approaches are commonly employed to study liquid/air, phospholipid bilayers, and molecular soft interfaces. 

Several recent overviews of principles and applications of Raman, FTIR, and HREELS spectroscopies are available in the literature [35-37, 124]. The use of all major surface and interface vibrational spectroscopies in adhesion studies has recently been reviewed [38]. Infrared spectroscopy is undoubtedly the most widely applied spectroscopic technique of all methods described in this chapter because so many different forms of the technique have been developed, each with its own specific applicability. Common to all vibrational techniques is the capability to detect functional groups, in contrast to the techniques discussed in Sec. III.A, which detect primarily elements. The techniques discussed here all are based in principle on the same mechanism, namely, when infrared radiation (or low-energy electrons as in HREELS) interacts with a sample, groups of atoms, not single elements, absorb energy at characteristic vibrations (frequencies). These absorptions are mainly used for qualitative identification of functional groups in the sample, but quantitative determinations are possible in many cases. 

Before an examination of the propagation and termination reactions individually, a brief overview of the methods that have been used to obtain profiles of the polymerization rate as a function of time is provided. The photopol5unerization rate can be monitored by any technique that measures a physical quantity which changes as the reaction progresses. In theory, a wide variety of analytical techniques could be used for this purpose (139-148), and new methods are continuously being developed (149). The commonly used methods for obtaining complete polymerization rate profiles are differential scanning calorimetry, fluorescence spectroscopy, and vibrational spectroscopies such as Raman and infrared. 

Not only do the experimental vibrational predissociation lifetimes require interpretation, so do the increasingly sophisticated theoretical calculations whose results often fall out of a web of coupled differential equations or the convoluted algebra of quantum mechanics. In order to offer a qualitative overview of dynamical processes in van der Waals molecules, we shall introduce a selection rule which can provide insight into possible relaxation channels of vibrationally excited molecules. This selection rule concerns the change in a quantum number, Anj., which is to remain small for efficient vibrational predissociation processes. It bears a close analogy to the selection rules of optical spectroscopy which require small changes in quantum numbers Au, AJ, AS, etc. for efficient transitions between molecular states. Let us review the origin of the vibrational predissociation selection rule which has been developed in more detail elsewhere. ... 

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