Photoionization of epichlorohydrin enantiomers and clusters studied with circularly polarized vacuum ultraviolet radiation

The photoionization of enantiomerically pure epichlorohydrin (C(3)H(5)OCl) has been studied using linearly and circularly polarized vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. The threshold photoelectron spectrum was recorded and the first three bands assigned using molecular orbital calculations for the expected conformers, although uncertain experimental conformer populations and an anticipated breakdown in Koopmans' theorem leave some ambiguity. Measurements of the photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) were obtained across a range of photon energies for each of these bands, using electron velocity map imaging to record the angular distributions, during which a record PECD chiral asymmetry factor of 32% was observed. A comparison with calculated PECD curves clarifies the assignment achieved using ionization energies alone and further suggests a likely relative population of the conformers. Threshold photoelectron-photoion coincidence methods were used to study the ionic fragmentation of epichlorohydrin. Fragment ion appearance energies show nonstatistical behavior with clear indications that the cationic epoxide ring is unstable and lower energy decay channels proceeding via ring breaking are generally open. Extensive neutral homochiral clusters of epichlorohydrin may be formed in supersonic molecular beam expansions seeded in Ar. Electron angular distribution measurements made in coincidence with dimer and trimer ions are used to effect an examination of the PECD associated with ionization of size-selected neutral cluster species, and these results differ clearly from PECD of the neutral monomer. The shifted ionization thresholds of the n-mers (n = 2, ..., 7) are shown to follow a simple linear relationship, but under intense beam expansion conditions the monomer deviates from this relationship, and the monomer electron spectra tail to below the expected monomer adiabatic ionization potential (IP). PECD measurements made in coincidence with monomer ions obtained under different beam expansion conditions were used to identify unambiguously a contribution from dissociative photoionization of larger clusters to the monomer parent mass ion yield above and below its adiabatic IP.     

Hydrogen-bonded structures for self-aggregates of 2,5-dimethylpyrrole and its binary clusters with pyrrole studied by IR cavity ringdown spectroscopy

N-H···π hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) structures were studied by applying vibrational spectroscopy to self-aggregate clusters of 2,5-dimethylpyrrole (DMPy) and its binary clusters with pyrrole (Py). The NH stretching vibrations of jet-cooled clusters were observed by IR cavity ringdown spectroscopy. A combination of experiments and density functional theory calculations revealed the stable structures, intermolecular binding energies, and harmonic vibrational frequencies. The IR spectrum of the DMPy self-aggregate clusters was very similar in spectral features to that of the Py clusters in a previous work. The observed NH stretching vibrations at 3505, 3420, 3371, and 3353 cm(-1) are simultaneously red-shifted by ～25 cm(-1) from the Py monomer, dimer, trimer, and tetramer, respectively. Based on a spectral analogy of DMPy with Py, and a consistency of the calculated harmonic frequencies with experiments, the H-bonded structures of the DMPy clusters were determined to be of a T-shape for a dimer and a cyclic for a trimer and a tetramer. For the DMPy-Py binary clusters, we discussed the stability and geometry of the N-H···π interactions in the T-shaped dimer and the cyclic trimer. The binary dimer showed the only single NH stretch at 3419 cm(-1) in the IR spectrum. A vibrational analysis of the H-bonded NH stretches as well as the calculated stabilization energies deduced that only the binary dimer by DMPy as an acceptor and Py as a donor can exist in a supersonic jet. For binary trimers, NH stretches were observed due to both (DMPy)(2)-(Py)(1) and (DMPy)(1)-(Py)(2). They were found to have different vibrational patterns from each other; the former showed three dispersed NH stretches, and the other had two quasi-degenerate NH stretches. Throughout this study, we also considered the intermolecular geometries, such as the H-bond distance and the angle in terms of the methyl group substitution effect.     

Theoretical Study of Rg·NO (Rg=He,Ne, Ar and Kr) Complexes

Rg·NO (Rg=He, Ne, Ar and Kr) complexes were studied using ab initio calculations. The neutral Rg·NO complex geometry and vibrational frequencies were calculated with the cc-pVDZ basis set at the CCSD(T) level of theory. The calculations show that the geometry of the Rg·NO complexes is a skewed T-shape with the Rg atom on the oxygen side of the NO molecule, and that the RgNO bond angle increases with mass. The dissociation energies (DE) and ionization energies (IE) of the neutral Rg·NO complexes, and the dissociation energies of Rg·NO+ ionic complexes were calculated using Gaussian-2 (G2) methods and a high accuracy energy model. The ionization energies of the neutral Rg·NO complexes range from 9.265 eV for He·NO to 9.132 eV for Kr·NO and the dissociation energies of Rg·NO+ range from 0.017 eV for He·NO+ to 0.156 eV for Kr·NO+, in line with the expectation based on the increasing polarizability of the Rg atom.     

Size-selected methyl lactate clusters: fragmentation and spectroscopic fingerprints of chiral recognition

A comprehensive experimental study of the OH stretching vibrations of size-selected clusters of enantiopure and racemic methyl lactate is presented. For the size selection, we measured angular dependent mass spectra and time-of-flight distributions at the different fragment masses. In this way the fragmentation of these clusters upon electron impact ionization is obtained. The largest fragment masses of the neutral (MLac)n clusters are the protonated (MLac)n-1H+ ions. The results of a pressure dependent study in an FTIR jet experiment are compared with completely size-selected experiments based on atomic beam deflection and depletion spectroscopy. The size assignments and spectra agree for dimers and trimers. Structures and spectral information for the trimer and the tetramer at density functional and MP2 level are provided. Selective self-aggregation and chiral recognition was observed for homochiral trimers. They exhibit a ring structure bound by OH...OH hydrogen bonds. A spectacular switch in the hydrogen bonding topology was observed for the tetramer. The homochiral enantiomer exhibits cooperative OH...OH bonding, while the heterochiral version shows isolated OH...O=C bonding in a symmetric SRSR arrangement. The crucial ingredients for this identification are the size-selective IR spectra with their different shifts and line patterns which are reproduced by the calculations.     

Ab initio determination of the ionization potentials of water clusters (H2O)n (n = 2-6)

High-level quantum-chemical ab initio coupled-cluster and multiconfigurational perturbation methods have been used to compute the vertical and adiabatic ionization potentials of several water clusters: dimer, trimer, tetramer, pentamer, hexamer book, hexamer ring, hexamer cage, and hexamer prism. The present results establish reference values at a level not reported before for these systems, calibrating different computational strategies and helping to discard less reliable theoretical and experimental data. The systematic study with the increasing size of the water cluster allows obtaining some clues on the structure and reductive properties of liquid water.     

State-Selected Unimolecular Decomposition of δ-Valerolactam(+) and δ-Valerolactam(2)(+) Cations: Theory and Experiment

The near threshold photofragmentation pattern of δ-valerolactam(+) and δ-valerolactam(2)(+) has been recorded combining electron/ion coincidence techniques and vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. The experimental method yields the fragment intensity as a function of the internal energy deposited into the parent cation, up to 3.1 eV above the first ionization threshold. In parallel, ab initio studies on the δ-valerolactam(+) and δ-valerolactam(2)(+) cations and their ionic and neutral fragmentation products have been performed with the aim of determining the isomers of the ionic products observed experimentally as well as of their neutral counterparts. These computations were performed using the PBE0 exchange-correlation functional and the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. We found good agreement between the calculated reaction enthalpies and experimental appearance energies of the ions. More generally, our experimental and theoretical results reveal that the fragmentation of the ionic species of interest leads to a multitude of neutral and ionic fragments, which may be formed after intramolecular isomerization and complex decomposition processes. Multistep reaction pathways are expected.     

Electron correlation effects in the Fe dimer

The potential energy surface of the Fe dimer is investigated on the basis of density functional theory in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Electron correlation effects are taken into account explicitly within the GGA+U approach. We find a value of 2.20 eV for the Coulomb repulsion parameter U to describe the Fe dimer best, yielding a 9 Sigma(g)- ground state with an interatomic separation of 2.143 A. Agreement of the associated vibrational frequency, binding energy, ionization potential, and electron affinity with experimental data as well as corresponding results calculated within a high-level ab initio approach is improved significantly compared to conventional GGA. The effect of U on calculated geometric and magnetic properties of larger Fe clusters is discussed.     

Structures and rearrangement reactions of 4-aminophenol(H2O)1+ and 3-aminophenol(H2O)1+ clusters

In this paper the structures of 4-aminophenol(H2O)1+ and 3-aminophenol(H2O)1+ clusters are investigated in molecular beam experiments by different IR/UV-double resonance techniques as well as the mass analyzed threshold ionization spectroscopy yielding both inter- and intramolecular vibrations of the ionic and neutral species. Possible structures are extensively calculated at the level of density functional theory (DFT) or at the ab initio level of theory. From the experimental and theoretical investigations it can be concluded that in the case of 4-aminophenol(H2O)1 one O-H...O hydrogen-bonded structure exists in the neutral cluster but two structures containing either an O-H...O or a N-H...O hydrogen-bonded arrangement are observed in the spectra of the ionic species. This observation is a result of an intramolecular rearrangement reaction within the ion which can only take place if high excess energies are used. A reaction path via the CH bonds is calculated and explains the experimental observations. In the case of 3-aminophenol(H2O)1+ only one O-H...O bound structure is observed both in the neutral and ionic species. Ab initio and DFT calculations show that due to geometrical and energetical reasons a rearrangement cannot be observed in the 3-aminophenol(H2O)1+ cluster ion.     

Fragmentation of size-selected Xe clusters: Why does the monomer ion channel dominate the Xen and ionization?

The fragmentation of the small Xe_n n=2−5 clusters following 70 eV electron impact ionization has been investigated in a size selective experiment and simulated using non-adiabatic dynamics. The experimental results show that the clusters strongly fragment to yield monomer Xe⁺ (more than 90%) and dimer Xe₂⁺ fragments (the remaining few percent). Trimer Xe₃⁺ fragments first occur from the neutral pentamers Xe₅ in a very low yield of approximately 0.3%. The present results are compared with the previous ones for Kr and Ar clusters. It is shown that the Xe and Kr clusters exhibit a qualitatively similar behavior with a strong propensity for monomer fragments, while in the Ar case dimers prevail. The theoretical calculations also reveal a strong fragmentation to the dimer and monomer fragments. However, the dimer Rg₂⁺ is predicted to be the major product for all rare gases (Rg ≡ Ar, Kr, Xe). Possible reasons for the discrepancy between theory and experiment are discussed.     

Effect of noncovalent interactions on the n-butylbenzene...Ar cluster studied by mass analyzed threshold ionization spectroscopy and ab initio computations

Clusters of Ar bound to isomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon n-butylbenzene (BB) have been studied using two-color REMPI (resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization) and MATI (mass analyzed threshold ionization) spectroscopy to explore noncovalent vdW interactions between these two moieties. Blue shifts of excitation energy were observed for gauche-BB...Ar clusters, and red shifts for anti-BB...Ar clusters were observed. Adiabatic ionization energies (IEs) of the conformer BB-I...Ar and BB-V...Ar were determined as 70052 and 69845 +/- 5 cm (-1), respectively. Spectral features and vibrational modes were interpreted with the aid of UMP2/cc-pVDZ ab initio calculations. Data of complexation shifts of the alkyl-benzenes and their argon clusters were collected and discussed. Using the CCSD(T) method at complete basis set (CBS) level, interaction energies for the neutral ground states of BB-I...Ar and BB-V...Ar were obtained as 650 and 558 cm (-1), respectively. Combining the CBS calculation results and the REMPI and MATI spectra allowed further the determination of the interaction energies and the energetics of BB...Ar in the excited neutral S 1 and the D 0 cationic ground states.     

Fragmentation Behavior and Ionization Potentials of Lead Clusters Pb_n(n≤30)

The properties of Pbn(n=2―30) clusters including binding energies,second differences in energy,and HOMO-LUMO gaps,especially fragmentation energies and ionization potentials,have been studied by ab initio calculation.The main fragmentation products of Pbn+ are shown to be Pb+Pbn-1+ for n≤14 and two small cluster fragments for larger ones with n14.The Pb13+ appears frequently as the products in the fragmentations of large clusters.Also,the calculated ionization potentials of the clusters are consistent with the experiment data.     

Ionization of imidazole in the gas phase, microhydrated environments, and in aqueous solution

Hydration of neutral and cationic imidazole is studied by means of ab initio and molecular dynamics calculations, and by photoelectron spectroscopy of the neutral species in a liquid microjet. The calculations show the importance of long range solvent polarization and of the difference between the structure of water molecules in the first shell around the neutral vs cationic species for determining vertical and adiabatic ionization potentials. The vertical ionization potential of neutral imidazole of 8.06 eV calculated using a nonequilibrium polarizable continuum model agrees well with the value of 8.26 eV obtained experimentally for an aqueous solution at pH 10.6.     

Theoretical modeling of postionization fragmentation of rare-gas trimer cations

The dynamics of ionic rare-gas trimers (Ar(3) (+), Kr(3) (+), and Xe(3) (+)) produced by a sudden ionization of neutral precursors is investigated theoretically with a hybrid classical-quantum method for solving the equations of motion governed by a Hamiltonian obtained from a previously tested diatomics-in-molecules model. Initial conditions are selected with Monte Carlo sampling. Two possibilities for generating the initial electronic state are considered: diabatic (local) and adiabatic (delocalized). The dynamics generally leads to fragmentation, producing either monomer ions or dimer ions in a relatively short time; however, a large number of long-lived metastable trimer ions are also seen in some cases. We have analyzed the dynamics with respect to the fraction of monomer ions produced, the distribution of the kinetic energy of the products, and the distribution of fragmentation times of the trimers. Initial diabatic ionization is associated with much faster fragmentation than adiabatic ionization. Spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in the fragmentation dynamics.     

Photoelectron spectroscopy of jet-cooled aluminium cluster anions

Aluminium cluster anions (Al _n ^? ) are produced by laser vaporization without additional ionization and cooled by supersonic expansion. Photoelectrons from mass-identified anion bunches (n=2...25) are detached by laser light (hv=3.68 eV) and undergo energy analysis in a magnetic bottle-type time-of-flight spectrometer. The measurements provide information about the electronic excitation energies from ionic ground states to neutral states of the clusters. In contrast to bulk aluminium these cluster photoelectron spectra partially have well-resolved bands which originate from low-lying excited bands. For small clusters, especially the aluminium dimer and trimer, quantum-chemical calculations will be compared to the measurements. The electron affinity size dependence of larger clusters shows conclusive evidence for “shell” effects.     

Formation and Fragmentation of Protonated Molecules after Ionization of Amino Acid and Lactic Acid Clusters by Collision with Ions in the Gas Phase

Collisions between O³⁺ ions and neutral clusters of amino acids (alanine, valine and glycine) as well as lactic acid are performed in the gas phase, in order to investigate the effect of ionizing radiation on these biologically relevant molecular systems. All monomers and dimers are found to be predominantly protonated, and ab initio quantum–chemical calculations on model systems indicate that for amino acids, this is due to proton transfer within the clusters after ionization. For lactic acid, which has a lower proton affinity than amino acids, a significant non‐negligible amount of the radical cation monomer is observed. New fragment‐ion channels observed from clusters, as opposed to isolated molecules, are assigned to the statistical dissociation of protonated molecules formed upon ionization of the clusters. These new dissociation channels exhibit strong delayed fragmentation on the microsecond time scale, especially after multiple ionization.     

Electron impact fragmentation of size-selected krypton clusters

Clusters of krypton are generated in a supersonic expansion and size selected by deflection from a helium target beam. By measuring angular distributions for different fragment masses and time-of-flight distributions for fixed deflection angles and fragment masses, the complete fragmentation patterns for electron impact ionization at 70 eV are obtained from the dimer to the heptamer. For each of the neutral Kr(n) clusters studied, the main fragment is the monomer Kr(+) ion with a probability f(n)(1) > 90%. The probability of observing dimer Kr(2)(+) ions is much smaller than expected for each initial cluster size. The trimer ion Kr(3)(+) appears first from the neutral Kr(5), and its fraction increases with increasing neutral cluster size n, but is always much smaller than that of the monomer or dimer. For neutral Kr(7), all possible ion fragments are observed, but the monomer still represents 90% of the overall probability and fragments with n > 3 contribute less than 1% of the total. Aspects of the Kr(n) cluster ionization process and the experimental measurements are discussed to provide possible reasons for the surprisingly high probability of observing fragmentation to the Kr(+) monomer ion.     

A DIM model for homogeneous noble gas ionic clusters

The method of diatomics-in-molecules (DIM) is applied to the calculation of the energy of the homogeneous noble-gas ionic clusters Ar _n ⁺ and Xe _n ⁺ forn=3, 4, ..., 22. The trimers are stable symmetric linear molecules exhibiting chemical binding, a result in agreement both with ab initio calculations and with previous DIM work. The clusters up ton=13 are best described as a trimer ion surrounded by neutrals, whereby the charge distribution changes slightly with increasingn. Both noble gases exhibit a special stability associated with the completion of the first shell of neutral atoms atn=13. Asn increases from 13 to 22, there is a greater delocalization of the positive charge, the central ion tending to become a linear tetramer, symmetric for Xe and unsymmetric for Ar. Energies of the excited electronic states are reported and the possibility of developing simpler DIM models for the clusters and for mixed noble gases is discussed.     

Ab initio theoretical calculations of the electronic excitation energies of small water clusters

A direct ab initio molecular dynamics method has been applied to a water monomer and water clusters (H(2)O)(n) (n = 1-3) to elucidate the effects of zero-point energy (ZPE) vibration on the absorption spectra of water clusters. Static ab initio calculations without ZPE showed that the first electronic transitions of (H(2)O)(n), (1)B(1)←(1)A(1), are blue-shifted as a function of cluster size (n): 7.38 eV (n = 1), 7.58 eV (n = 2) and 8.01 eV (n = 3). The inclusion of the ZPE vibration strongly affects the excitation energies of a water dimer, and a long red-tail appears in the range of 6.42-6.90 eV due to the structural flexibility of a water dimer. The ultraviolet photodissociation of water clusters and water ice surfaces is relevant to these results.     

Computational study of the Zr4+ tetranuclear polymer, [Zr4(OH)8(H2O)16]8+

The Zr(4+) tetramer, [Zr(4)(OH)(8)(H(2)O)(16)](8+), is thought to be the major component of the Zr(4+) polymer system in aqueous solution, present as a dominant ionic cluster species compared to other Zr(4+) clusters under various experimental conditions. Despite widespread applications of zirconium, the structure and dynamics of the tetramer in aqueous solution are not well understood. We conducted a combination of ab initio molecular dynamics and quantum mechanical studies in the gas phase and aqueous solution and related our results to the available experimental data to provide atom-level information on the behavior of this species in aqueous solution. Our simulations indicate that the tetramer structure is stable on the picosecond time scale in an aqueous environment and that it is of a planar form, comprising eight-coordinated Zr(4+) ions with an antiprism/irregular dodecahedron ligand arrangement. In combination with our studies of Zr(4+) dimer and trimer clusters, our results provide detailed geometrical information on structural motifs for building zirconium polymers and suggest a possible polymerization path.     

Probing the structures of neutral boron clusters using infrared/vacuum ultraviolet two color ionization: B11, B16, and B17

The structures of neutral boron clusters, B(11), B(16), and B(17), have been investigated using vibrational spectroscopy and ab initio calculations. Infrared absorption spectra in the wavelength range of 650 to 1550 cm(-1) are obtained for the three neutral boron clusters from the enhancement of their near-threshold ionization efficiency at a fixed UV wavelength of 157 nm (7.87 eV) after resonant absorption of the tunable infrared photons. All three clusters, B(11), B(16), and B(17), are found to possess planar or quasi-planar structures, similar to their corresponding anionic counterparts (B(n) (-)), whose global minima were found previously to be planar, using photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. Only minor structural changes are observed between the neutral and the anionic species for these three boron clusters.