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Vapor phase OH-stretching overtone spectra of ethylene glycol were recorded to investigate weak intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The spectra were recorded with conventional absorption spectroscopy and laser photoacoustic spectroscopy in the first to fourth OH-stretching overtone regions. The room-temperature spectra are dominated by two conformers that show weak intramolecular hydrogen bonding. A less abundant third conformer, with no sign of hydrogen bonding, is also observed. Vapor phase spectra of the ethylene-d(4) glycol isotopomer were also recorded and used to identify an interfering resonance between CH-stretching and OH-stretching states in the fourth overtone. Anharmonic oscillator local mode calculations of the OH-stretching transitions have provided an accurate simulation of the observed spectra. The local mode parameters were calculated with coupled cluster ab initio methods. The calculations facilitate assignment of the different conformers in the spectra and illustrate the effect of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding.

The prompt formation of highly oxidized organic compounds in the ozonolysis of cyclohexene (C6H10) was investigated by means of laboratory experiments together with quantum chemical calculations. The experiments were performed in borosilicate glass flow tube reactors coupled to a chemical ionization atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a nitrate ion (NO3(-))-based ionization scheme. Quantum chemical calculations were performed at the CCSD(T)-F12a/VDZ-F12//ωB97XD/aug-cc-pVTZ level, with kinetic modeling using multiconformer transition state theory, including Eckart tunneling corrections. The complementary investigation methods gave a consistent picture of a formation mechanism advancing by peroxy radical (RO2) isomerization through intramolecular hydrogen shift reactions, followed by sequential O2 addition steps, that is, RO2 autoxidation, on a time scale of seconds. Dimerization of the peroxy radicals by recombination and cross-combination reactions is in competition with the formation of highly oxidized monomer species and is observed to lead to peroxides, potentially diacyl peroxides. The molar yield of these highly oxidized products (having O/C1 in monomers and O/C0.55 in dimers) from cyclohexene ozonolysis was determined as (4.5 ± 3.8)%. Fully deuterated cyclohexene and cis-6-nonenal ozonolysis, as well as the influence of water addition to the system (either H2O or D2O), were also investigated in order to strengthen the arguments on the proposed mechanism. Deuterated cyclohexene ozonolysis resulted in a less oxidized product distribution with a lower yield of highly oxygenated products and cis-6-nonenal ozonolysis generated the same monomer product distribution, consistent with the proposed mechanism and in agreement with quantum chemical modeling.

We have measured the infrared spectrum of H2O.HO in argon matrices at 11.5 +/- 0.5 K. We have also calculated the vibrational frequencies and intensities of the H2O.HO complex. As a result of these measurements and calculations, we have assigned a previously unassigned absorption band at 3442.1 cm-1 to the OH stretch in the radical complexed to the water molecule. This absorption originates from a complex that is situated in a different site within the argon matrix to those absorptions already assigned to this vibration at 3452.2 and 3428.0 cm-1. We observe a decrease in intensity of the OH radical stretching vibration of the H2O.HO complex upon isotopic substitution of D for H that agrees well with our calculations.

The water amidogen radical complex (H(2)O-NH(2)) is a reactive intermediate in the atmospheric oxidation of ammonia by a hydroxyl radical. In the present study, we identify for the first time the H(2)O-NH(2) complex using matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy. We corroborate our experimental findings with high level coupled cluster ab initio calculations.