Selection rules vibrational bands

Electronic spectra are almost always treated within the framework of the Bom-Oppenlieimer approxunation [8] which states that the total wavefiinction of a molecule can be expressed as a product of electronic, vibrational, and rotational wavefiinctions (plus, of course, the translation of the centre of mass which can always be treated separately from the internal coordinates). The physical reason for the separation is that the nuclei are much heavier than the electrons and move much more slowly, so the electron cloud nonnally follows the instantaneous position of the nuclei quite well. The integral of equation (BE 1.1) is over all internal coordinates, both electronic and nuclear. Integration over the rotational wavefiinctions gives rotational selection rules which detemiine the fine structure and band shapes of electronic transitions in gaseous molecules. Rotational selection rules will be discussed below. For molecules in condensed phases the rotational motion is suppressed and replaced by oscillatory and diflfiisional motions. 

Often it is possible to resolve vibrational structure of electronic transitions. In this section we will briefly review the symmetry selection rules and other factors controlling the intensity of individual vibronic bands. 

Polyatomic molecules vibrate in a very complicated way, but, expressed in temis of their normal coordinates, atoms or groups of atoms vibrate sinusoidally in phase, with the same frequency. Each mode of motion functions as an independent hamionic oscillator and, provided certain selection rules are satisfied, contributes a band to the vibrational spectr um. There will be at least as many bands as there are degrees of freedom, but the frequencies of the normal coordinates will dominate the vibrational spectrum for simple molecules. An example is water, which has a pair of infrared absorption maxima centered at about 3780 cm and a single peak at about 1580 cm (nist webbook). 

In an E vibrational state there is some splitting of rotational levels, compared with those of Figure 5.6(a), due to Coriolis forces, rather than that found in a If vibrational state, but the main difference in an E — band from an — A band is due to the selection rules... 

The effect of the AK = 1 selection rule, compared with AK = 0 for an transition, is to spread out the sets of P, Q, and R branches with different values of K. Each Q branch consists, as usual, of closely spaced lines, so as to appear almost line-like, and the separation between adjacent Q branches is approximately 2 A — B ). Figure 6.29 shows such an example, E — A band of the prolate symmetric rotor silyl fluoride (SiH3F) where Vg is the e rocking vibration of the SiH3 group. The Q branches dominate this fairly low resolution specttum, those with AK = - -1 and —1 being on the high and low wavenumber sides, respectively. 

In EMIRS and SNIFTIRS measurements the "inactive" s-polarlsed radiation is prevented from reaching the detector and the relative intensities of the vibrational bands observed in the spectra from the remaining p-polarised radiation are used to deduce the orientation of adsorbed molecules. It should be pointed out, however, that vibrational coupling to adsorbate/adsorbent charge transfer (11) and also w electrochemically activated Stark effect (7,12,13) can lead to apparent violations of the surface selection rule which can invalidate simple deductions of orientation. 

This broad band at 1500 cm was ascribed by Kaufman. Metin, and Saper-stein [10], to an IR observation of the amorphous carbon Raman D and G bands. This is forbidden by the selection rules, and has been attributed to the symmetry breaking introduced by the presence of CN bonds in the amorphous network. As carbon and nitrogen have different electronegativities, the formation of CN bonds gives the necessary charge polarity to allow the IR observation of the collective C=C vibrations in the IR spectrum. This conclusion was stated by the comparison of spectra taken from films deposited from N2 and N2. In the N2-film spectrum, no shift was observed for the 1500-cm band, whereas all other bands shifted as expected from the mass difference of the isotopes. Figure 25 compares... 

The surface selection rule operates in addition to the normal IR selection rules in determining which vibrational modes are observed. As a result of the SSR the relative intensities of the fundamental IR adsorption bands of an adsorbed species can be used to give information on the orientation of the species with respect to the surface. Both S- and P-polarised light interact equally with the randomly oriented solution species. 

The different interaction principles also explain why strongly IR-active vibrations typically exhibit weak Raman bands and vice versa, even if the selection rules would allow a vibration. If a strong dipole exists in a molecule, the electron cloud is strongly polarised. A change of polarisation in response to the electric field of a photon is therefore not very likely. 

For a fundamental vibrational mode to be IR-active, a change in the molecular dipole must take place during the molecular vibration. This is described as the IR selection rule. Atoms that possess different electronegativity and are chemically bonded change the net dipole of a molecule during normal molecular vibrations. Typically, antisymmetric vibrational modes and vibrations due to polar groups are more likely to exhibit prominent IR absorption bands. 

Here a third selection rule applies for linear molecules, transitions corresponding to vibrations along the main axis are allowed if Aj = 1. The A/=0 transition is only allowed for vibrations perpendicular to the main axis. Note that because of this selection rule the purely vibrational transition (called Q branch) appears in the gas phase spectrum of C(X but is absent in that of CO. In both cases, two branches of rotational side bands appear (called P and R branch) (see Fig. 8.3 for gas phase CO). 

Some characteristics of, and comparisons between, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) for examining reactive as well as stable electrochemical adsorbates are illustrated by means of selected recent results from our laboratory. The differences in vibrational selection rules for surface Raman and infrared spectroscopy are discussed for the case of azide adsorbed on silver, and used to distinguish between "flat" and "end-on" surface orientations. Vibrational band intensity-coverage relationships are briefly considered for some other systems that are unlikely to involve coverage-induced reorientation. 

In a case where the transition of an energy state is from 0 to 1 in any one of the vibrational states (vi,v2,v3,. ..), the transition is considered as fundamental and is allowed by selection rules. When a transition is from the ground state to v — 2,3,. .., and all others are zero, it is known as an overtone. Transitions from the ground state to a state for which Vj = 1 and vj = 1 simultaneously are known as combination bands. Other combinations, such as v — 1, Vj = 1, v = 1, or v, — 2, v7 — 1, etc., are also possible. In the strictest form, overtones and combinations are not allowed, however they do appear (weaker than fundamentals) due to anharmonicity or Fermi resonance. 

In polymers the infrared absorption spectrum is generally very simple, considering the large number of atoms that are involved. This simplicity is due to the fact that many of the normal vibrations have almost the same frequency and so appear in the spectrum as one absorption band and, also from the strict selection rules that avoid many of the vibrations from causing absorptions. 

Raman and IR spectroscopies are complementary to each other because of their different selection rules. Raman scattering occurs when the electric field of light induces a dipole moment by changing the polarizability of the molecules. In Raman spectroscopy the intensity of a band is linearly related to the concentration of the species. IR spectroscopy, on the other hand, requires an intrinsic dipole moment to exist for charge with molecular vibration. The concentration of the absorbing species is proportional to the logarithm of the ratio of the incident and transmitted intensities in the latter technique. 

Due to limitations in signal-to-noise ratio available for the then common dispersive IR instruments, peptide and protein vibrational spectroscopic studies shifted to emphasize Raman measurements in the 1970s 29-32 Qualitatively the same sorts of empirical correlations as discussed above have been found between frequencies of amide bands in the Raman and secondary structure. However, due to the complementary selection rules for Raman as compared to IR and to the multi-component nature of these polymeric spectral bands, the... 

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