A Molecular Cluster Study on Activated CH/π Interactions: Infrared Spectroscopy of Aromatic Molecule-Acetylene Clusters
A. Fujii, S. Morita, M. Miyazaki, T. Ebata, and N. Mikami,
J. Phys. Chem. A 108, 2652 (2004).

CH stretching vibrations of jet-cooled benzene-acetylene and several aromatics-acetylene clusters were observed in order to characterize the intermolecular interaction, so-called activated CH/π interaction between an acidic CH group and π-electrons. The infrared-ultraviolet double resonance spectroscopic techniques were used for measuring their vibrational spectra. The antisymmetric CH stretching vibration of the acetylene moiety exhibits a remarkable low-frequency shift upon the cluster formation with the aromatic molecules, indicating such a cluster structure that the acetylenic CH group is bound to π-electrons of the aromatic ring. The low-frequency shifts observed for the clusters show a positive correlation with the π-electron density of the ring, as expected for an ordinary π-hydrogen bond. On the other hand, the polarizability of the proton accepting molecules showed a weakly negative correlation with the CH frequency shifts. These results represent that the intermolecular interaction between the activated CH group and π-electrons is characterized as a π-hydrogen bond rather than a van der Waals interaction.

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