Infrared plus vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy of neutral and ionic ethanol monomers and clusters

A high sensitivity spectroscopy is employed to detect vibrational antiitions of ethanol neutrals and ions in a supersonic expansion. The infrared (IR) features located at 3682 and 3667 cm(-1) can be assigned to the OH stretch for the two neutral C(2)H(5)OH conformers, anti and gauche, respectively. Their overtone energies located at 7179 (anti) and 7141 (gauche) cm(-1) are also identified. The OH fundamental stretch for ethanol ions is redshifted around 210 cm(-1), while the CH stretch modes are unchanged for neutral and ionic C(2)H(5)OH at around 2900-3000 cm(-1). The charge on the ethanol ion is apparently localized on the oxygen atom. IR induced photodissociation spectroscopy is applied to the study of neutral and protonated ethanol clusters. Neutral and protonated ethanol cluster vibrations are observed. The CH modes are not perturbed by the clustering process. Neutral clusters display only hydrogen bonded OH features, while the protonated ionic clusters display both hydrogen bonded and non-hydrogen-bonded features. These spectroscopic results are analyzed to obtain qualitative structural information on neutral and ionic ethanol clusters.