Near-infrared spectra of hydrogen-bonded cyclic dimers of some carboxylic acids

Near-infrared spectra in the 3900–11000 cm⁻¹ region were measured for formic and acetic acids and also for their deutero analogs in the gaseous state at various temperatures. Observed monomer and dimer bands were assigned to overtone and summation bands of various vibrational modes. Special attention was paid to the first overtone bands of the OH and OD stretching modes of the hydrogen-bonded cyclic dimers, which were observed at ∼5930 cm⁻¹ and ∼5870 cm⁻¹ for formic-d acid and acetic-d₃ acid, respectively, and also at ∼4370 cm⁻¹ for acetic acid-d. On the basis of these data the anharmonicity constants were calculated for the OH and OD stretching modes and were found to increase by hydrogen-bond formation in the gaseous state. Hydrogen-bonded overtone bands are broad and have submaxima with intervals nearly half of those of the OH and OD fundamental bands. The results concerning the band breadths of the OH and OD stretching vibrations of the dimers were interpreted on the line of the idea that they strongly couple with the O?O stretching vibration.