The molecular structures, vibrational spectroscopies (FT-IR and Raman) and quantum chemical calculations of n-alkyltrimethylammonium bromides

The FT-IR and micro-Raman spectra of three n-alkyltrimethylammonium bromides (dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) and hexadecyl(cetyl)trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)) in powder form were recorded in the regions 4000–550 cm^?1 and 3200–300 cm^?1, respectively. The optimized geometries and vibrational frequencies of DTAB, TTAB and CTAB have been carried out with ab initio Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory method B3LYP calculations with the 6–31 G (d, p) basis set in the ground state. The comparison of the observed fundamental vibrational frequencies and calculated results for the fundamental vibrational frequencies of DTAB, TTAB and CTAB indicate that the scaled B3LYP method is superior compared to the scaled HF method.