Assignment, Fit, and Theoretical Discussion of the nu-10 Band of Acetaldehyde Near 509 cm-1

Published

September 4, 2008

Author(s)

I Kleiner, N Moazzen-Ahmadi, A R. McKellar, Thomas A. Blake, G Moruzzi, Jon T. Hougen

Abstract

The lowest small-amplitude vibration in acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) is the in-plane aldehyde scissors mode ?10 at 509 cm?1. This mode lies about 100 cm?1 above the top of the barrier to internal rotation of the methyl group and is relatively well separated from other small-amplitude vibrational states (the next fundamental occurring more than 250 cm?1 higher). It thus provides an excellent example of an isolated small-amplitude fundamental (bright state) embedded in a bath of dark states. Since the bath states at these energies are not too dense, and since they arise purely from states of the large-amplitude torsional vibration of the methyl rotor, a detailed spectroscopic analysis of interactions between the bright state and the bath states should be possible. This paper represents the first step toward that goal. We have assigned several thousand transitions in the ?10 band (J ? 28, K ? 12), and have carried out a simultaneous fit of 2400 of these transitions (J ? 15, K ? 9) with over 8100 transitions to the torsional bath state levels. Three vibration-torsion interactions, which give rise to rather global level shifts of the order of 1 cm-1 in the ?10 levels, have been identified and quantitatively fit. A number of vibration-torsion-rotation interactions, which give rise to localized (avoided-crossing) shifts in ?10 have also been determined. The present analysis indicates the need for reliable spectroscopic information on more of the torsional bath states in the immediate vicinity of the ?10 levels. Possible ways of obtaining such information in future studies are considered.

Citation

Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy

Volume

252

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

acetaldehyde, high-resolution infrared spectrum, least-squares fit, micro wave spectrum, nu_10 vibration, torsional bath

Citation

Kleiner, I. , Moazzen-Ahmadi, N. , McKellar, A. , Blake, T. , Moruzzi, G. and Hougen, J. (2008), Assignment, Fit, and Theoretical Discussion of the nu-10 Band of Acetaldehyde Near 509 cm^-1, Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=841027 (Accessed October 2, 2025)