Global Fit of Torsion-Rotation Transitions in the Ground and First Excited Torsional States of CD3OH Methanol

Internal rotation analysis of the microwave and millimeter wave spectra of fluoral (CF3CHO)

The rotational spectrum (4-40 GHz and 50-330 GHz) has been measured and analyzed for trifluoroacetaldehyde, also known as fluoral (CF₃CHO), which is one of the degradation products of the fluorinated contaminants emitted into the atmosphere. The complexity of the spectroscopic analysis of this molecule arises from the strong coupling between the internal rotation motion of CF₃ group and the overall rotation of the molecule. The value obtained for its coupling constant (ρ = 0.91723481(49)) is comparable to the corresponding value of methanol (CH₃OH, ρ = 0.81), which is known for its complex spectrum. A total of 12,322 transitions of the ground, the first and second excited torsional states (ΔE_1υt = 62.0183(13)cm^-1; ΔE_2υt = 120.3315(13)cm^-1) with J ≤ 50 were included in the analysis that was performed employing the rho-axis-method (RAM), and the RAM36 code. A fit within experimental error (root mean square deviation equals to 35 kHz) has been achieved for this dataset using 47 parameters of the RAM torsion-rotation Hamiltonian. In the course of the analysis, it became evident that for such high ρ value, as it is determined for fluoral, a larger than usual torsional basis set at the first diagonalization step of the two-step diagonalization procedure is required for achieving a fit within experimental error.

Simple models for the quick estimation of ground state hydrogen tunneling splittings in alcohols and other compounds

Models for the quick estimation of energy splittings caused by coherent tunneling of hydrogen atoms are evaluated with available experimental data for alcohols and improvements are proposed. The discussed models are mathematically simple and require only results from routine quantum chemical computations, i.e. hybrid DFT calculation of the equilibrium geometry and the transition state within the harmonic approximation. A benchmark of experimental splittings spanning four orders of magnitude for 27 alcohol species is captured by three evaluated models with a mean symmetric deviation factor of 1.7, 1.5 and 1.4, respectively, i.e. the calculated values deviate on average by this factor in either direction. Limitations of the models are explored with alcohols featuring uncommon properties, such as an inverted conformational energy sequence, a very light molecular frame, an elevated torsional frequency, or a coupling with a second internal degree of freedom. If the splitting of either the protiated or deuterated form of an alcohol is already experimentally determined, the one of the second isotopolog can be estimated by three additional models with a mean symmetric deviation factor of 1.14, 1.19 and 1.15, respectively. It is shown that this can be achieved with a novel approach without any quantum chemical calculation by directly correlating experimental splittings of isotopologs across related species. This is also demonstrated for other classes of compounds with hydrogen tunneling, such as amines, thiols, and phenols. Furthermore, it is found that the isotope effect can even be anticipated without any further knowledge about the system solely from the size of either splitting with a mean symmetric deviation factor of 1.3. This is based on an extensive sample of 77 pairs of splittings spanning eight orders of magnitude for isotopologs of chemically diverse compounds.

Analysis of the microwave, terahertz, and far infrared spectra of monodeuterated methanol CH2DOH up to J = 26, K = 11, and o(1)

The first theoretical approach aimed at accounting for the energy levels of a non-rigid molecule displaying asymmetric-top asymmetric-frame internal rotation is developed. It is applied to a line position analysis of the high-resolution spectrum of the non-rigid CH2DOH molecule and allows us to carry out a global analysis of a data set consisting of already available data and of microwave and far infrared transitions measured in this work. The analysis is restricted to the three lowest lying torsional levels (e0, e1, and o1), to K ⩽ 11, and to J ⩽ 26. For the 8211 fitted lines, the unitless standard deviation is 2.4 and 103 parameters are determined including kinetic energy, hindering potential, and distortion effects parameters.

The Ground and First Excited Torsional States of Acetic Acid

A global fit of microwave and millimeter-wave rotational transitions in the ground and first excited torsional states (v(t) = 0 and 1) of acetic acid (CH(3)COOH) is reported, which combines older measurements from the literature with new measurements from Kharkov, Lille, and NIST. The fit uses a model developed initially for acetaldehyde and methanol-type internal rotor molecules. It requires 34 parameters to achieve a unitless weighted standard deviation of 0.84 for a total of 2518 data and includes A- and E-species transitions with J </= 30 and K(a) </= 15. While these results represent a significant improvement over past fitting attempts, it should be cautioned that the present data set is dominated by v(t) = 0 transitions, and no direct infrared measure of the v(t) = 1 <-- 0 torsional interval is available. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Millimeter-Wave Spectra and Global Torsion-Rotation Analysis for the CH(3)OD Isotopomer of Methanol

New millimeter-wave and microwave measurements for CH(3)OD have been combined with previous literature data and with an extended body of Fourier transform far-infrared observations in a full global analysis of the first two torsional states (v(t) = 0 and 1) of the ground vibrational state. The fitted CH(3)OD data set contained 564 microwave and millimeter-wave lines and 4664 far-infrared lines, representing the most recent available information in the quantum number ranges J </= 20 and K </= 15. A 53-parameter converged global fit was achieved with an overall weighted standard deviation of 1.060, essentially to within the assigned measurement uncertainties of +/-100 kHz for almost all of the microwave and millimeter-wave lines and +/-6 MHz for the far-infrared lines. The new parameters for CH(3)OD are compared to previous results obtained for the (12)CH(3)OH, (13)CH(3)OH, and CD(3)OH isotopomers over the same quantum number ranges using the identical fitting program. Strong asymmetry-induced coupling between the accidentally near-degenerate 0E and -1E v(t) = 0 substates is successfully modeled by the fit. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

New Measurements and Assignments in the Millimeter-Wave Spectrum of CD3OH

The ground state rotational spectrum of CD3OH has been revisited in the millimeter-wave range. A total of 216 transition frequencies have been measured and assigned in the 117-179 GHz spectral range, including about 40 transitions previously reported. The spectrum was recorded at the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany using a frequency modulated millimeter-wave spectrometer. The assignments for the CD3OH transitions were predicted based on energy levels calculated using preliminary results of the global fit of microwave, millimeter-wave, and far-infrared data of Walsh et al. (Paper FC04 presented at the 52nd International Symposium of Molecular Spectroscopy, Columbus, OH, 1997). The new measurements have substantially enlarged the accurate millimeter-wave component of the data set available for the global fit and have allowed Walsh et al. to obtain significant improvement in the CD3OH molecular parameters (J. Mol. Spectrosc. 188, 85-93, 1998). The low residuals between observed and calculated frequencies highlight the quality of the global fit results. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.