Spectroscopic and theoretical study of vibrational spectra of hydrogen‐bonded tropolone

Theoretical simulation of the bandshape and fine structure of the ν_s stretching band is presented for tropolone‐H and tropolone‐D taking into account an adiabatic coupling between the high‐frequency O–H(D) stretching and the low‐frequency intra‐ and intermolecular OO stretching modes, and linear and quadratic distortions of the potential energies for the low‐frequency vibrations in the excited state of the O–H(D) stretching vibration. In order to determine the low‐frequency vibrations, the experimental spectra of the polycrystalline tropolone in the far‐infrared and the low‐frequency Raman range have been recorded for the first time. The experimental frequencies in the low‐frequency region are compared with the results of the HF/6‐31G** and Becke3LYP/6‐31G** calculations carried out for the tropolone dimer. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 73: 275–282, 1999