An H/D isotopic substitution study of the H5O2+.Ar vibrational predissociation spectra: exploring the putative role of Fermi resonances in the bridging proton fundamentals

To clarify the nature of the motions contributing to the observed multiplet structures in the low-energy (900-1800 cm-1) vibrational spectrum of the H5O2+ "Zundel" ion, we report the evolution of its vibrational fingerprint with sequential H/D isotopic substitution in a predissociation study of the Ar complexes. Of particular interest is the D4HO2+ complex, which displays a single intense band in the vicinity of the asymmetric OHO stretch of the bridging proton, in contrast to the more complex multiplet observed for both H5O2+ and D5O2+ isotopologues. These intensity patterns are consistent with the recent assignment of the bridging proton band's doublet in the H5O2+.Ne spectrum to a 2 x 2 Fermi resonance interaction between the shared proton stretch and a complex background level primarily derived from the O-O stretch together with two quanta of the wagging vibration involving the pyramidal deformations of the flanking H2O groups (Vendrell, O.; Gatti, F.; Meyer, H.-D. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 6918). In addition, the observed trends rule out assignment of the approximately 1800 cm-1 feature in H5O2+ to a combination band of the bridging proton vibration with the O-O stretch, providing a secure foundation for the previously reported scheme that attributes this band to the out-of-phase intramolecular bending fundamental. The observed feature occurs at an unusually high energy for typical HOH bends, however, and we explore the participation of the bridging proton in these eigenstates by following how the calculated harmonic spectrum evolves when artificially large masses are assigned to the proton. The empirical assignments are supported by anharmonic estimates of the isotope shifts evaluated by the diffusion Monte Carlo method.