Spectroscopy molecular motion

This section begins with a brief description of the basic light-molecule interaction. As already indicated, coherent light pulses excite coherent superpositions of molecular eigenstates, known as wavepackets , and we will give a description of their motion, their coherence properties, and their interplay with the light. Then we will turn to linear and nonlinear spectroscopy, and, finally, to a brief account of coherent control of molecular motion. 

Both infrared and Raman spectroscopy provide infonnation on the vibrational motion of molecules. The teclmiques employed differ, but the underlying molecular motion is the same. A qualitative description of IR and Raman spectroscopies is first presented. Then a slightly more rigorous development will be described. For both IR and Raman spectroscopy, the fiindamental interaction is between a dipole moment and an electromagnetic field. Ultimately, the two... 

We begm tliis section by looking at the Solomon equations, which are the simplest fomuilation of the essential aspects of relaxation as studied by NMR spectroscopy of today. A more general Redfield theory is introduced in the next section, followed by the discussion of the coimections between the relaxation and molecular motions and of physical mechanisms behind the nuclear relaxation. 

Up to now it has been tacitly assumed that each molecular motion can be described by a single correlation time. On the other hand, it is well-known, e.g., from dielectric and mechanical relaxation studies as well as from photon correlation spectroscopy and NMR relaxation times that in polymers one often deals with a distribution of correlation times60 65), in particular in glassy systems. Although the phenomenon as such is well established, little is known about the nature of this distribution. In particular, most techniques employed in this area do not allow a distinction of a heterogeneous distribution, where spatially separed groups move with different time constants and a homogeneous distribution, where each monomer unit shows essentially the same non-exponential relaxation. Even worse, relaxation... 

Perchard J. P., Murphy W. F., Bernstein H. J. Raman and Rayleigh spectroscopy and molecular motions. III. Self-broadening and broadening by inert gases of hydrogen halide gas spectra, Mol. Phys. 23, 535-45 (1972). 

To carry out a spectroscopy, that is the structural and dynamical determination, of elementary processes in real time at a molecular level necessitates the application of laser pulses with durations of tens, or at most hundreds, of femtoseconds to resolve in time the molecular motions. Sub-100 fs laser pulses were realised for the first time from a colliding-pulse mode-locked dye laser in the early 1980s at AT T Bell Laboratories by Shank and coworkers by 1987 these researchers had succeeded in producing record-breaking pulses as short as 6fs by optical pulse compression of the output of mode-locked dye laser. In the decade since 1987 there has only been a slight improvement in the minimum possible pulse width, but there have been truly major developments in the ease of generating and characterising ultrashort laser pulses. 

The relevant contribute of relaxation measurements on the use of NMR spectroscopy in studying interactions can be argued by considering the relationship between relaxation rates and spectral density function being the latter related to the correlation time, which accounts for the molecular motion. Therefore, spin-lattice and spin-spin can be used to probe interactions between, in principle, every species bearing an active NMR nucleus. 

Molecular Motions and Dynamic Structures. Molecular motions are of quite general occurrence in the solid state for molecules of high symmetry (22,23). If the motion does not introduce disorder into the crystal lattice (as, for example, the in-plane reorientation of benzene which occurs by 60° jumps between equivalent sites) it is not detected by diffraction measurements which will find a seemingly static lattice. Such molecular motions may be detected by wide-line proton NMR spectroscopy and quantified by relaxation-time measurements which yield activation barriers for the reorientation process. In addition, in some cases, the molecular reorientation may be coupled with a chemical exchange process as, for example, in the case of many fluxional organometallic molecules. ... 

Since about 1960 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become an important tool for the study of chain configuration, sequence distribution and microstructure of polymers. Its use started from early broad-line studies of the one-set of molecular motion in solid polymers and passed through the solution studies of proton NMR, to the application of the more difficult but more powerful carbon-13 NMR methods to both liquids and solids. 

Flash Photolysis. Time-resolved spectroscopy techniques are a powerful means of studying materials, giving information about the nature of the excitations, energy transfer, molecular motion, and molecular environment, information that is not available from steady-state measurements. It is... 

A reevaluation of molecular structure of humic substances based on data obtained primarily from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy, electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, and pyrolysis studies was presented by Sutton and Sposito (2005). The authors consider that humic substances are collections of diverse, relatively low molecular mass components forming dynamic associations stabilized by hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds. These associations are capable of organizing into micellar structures in suitable aqueous environments. Humic components display contrasting molecular motional behavior and may be spatially segregated on a scale of nanometers. Within this new structural context, these components comprise any molecules... 

I propose to develop and apply such methods, based on ultrafast X-ray absorption spectroscopy, to study the ultrafast molecular motions of organometallics in solutions. In particular, initial studies will focus on photo-induced ligand dissociation and substitution reactions of transition metal carbonyls and related compounds in various solvent systems. 

M. J. Duer, Solid-state NMR studies of molecular motion, in Annual Reports on NMR Spectroscopy, G. A. Webb (ed.), 2006, Vol. 59, Academic Press, London, pp. 41-116. 

In solution NMR spectroscopy, dipolar interactions and anisotropic effects are averaged out by the molecular motion, but this is not so in the solid state, and the NMR spectra of solids tend to be broadened by three main effects ... 

NMR spectroscopy provides spin-lattice (ri) and spin-spin (Tj) relaxation times. Making appropriate assumptions with regard to the magnetic interactions responsible for the relaxation process, these relaxation times can be related to molecular motions. Since nuclear spin relaxation results from all processes which cause a fluctuation in the magnetic field at the nucleus, the correlation function will generally correspond to more than one kind of motion involving all possible interactions. The equations for the relaxation times are generally of the form... 

U. Buontempo, S. Cunsolo, P. Dore and P. Maselli, Molecular motions in liquids. In J. van Kranendonk, ed., Intermodular Spectroscopy and Dynamical Properties of Dense Systems - Proceedings of the Int. School of Physics Enrico Fermi , Course LXXV, p. 211, 1980. 

Since frequencies for EPR spectroscopy are -100 times higher than those for NMR spectroscopy, correlation times (Chapter 3) must be less than 10-9 s if sharp spectra are to be obtained. Sharp bands may sometimes be obtained for solutions, but samples are often frozen to eliminate molecular motion spectra are taken at very low temperatures. For spin labels in lipid bilayers, both the bandwidth and shape are sensitively dependent upon molecular motion, which may be either random or restricted. Computer simulations are often used to match observed band shapes under varying conditions with those predicted by theories of motional broadening of lines. Among the many spin-labeled compounds that have been incorporated into lipid bilayers are the following ... 

V. W. Laurie, "Studies of Internal Molecular Motions and Conformation by Microwave Spectroscopy, Accts. Chem. Res. 3, 331 (1970). 

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