Structure and vibrational spectra of gauche- and trans-conformers of ethanol: Nonempirical anharmonic calculations and FTIR spectra in argon matrices

Abstract

Low-temperature infrared absorption spectra are obtained for ethanol isolated in an argon matrix at temperatures of 20–45 K range for ratios of the numbers of the molecules being studied to the numbers of matrix atoms of 1:1000 and 1:2000. A preliminary interpretation of the spectra is obtained on the basis of the temperature variations in the spectra and published data. The structure of the ethanol conformers, rotational constants, and internal rotation barriers of the methyl and hydroxyl groups are calculated in the B3LYP/cc-pVQZ approximation. The harmonic and anharmonic IR spectra of the gauche- and trans-conformers are calculated in the same approximation. The force fields of the two conformers and the distributions of the potential energy of the normal vibrations are calculated and compared for a general set of dependent coordinates. Anharmonicity effects are taken into account by introducing spectroscopic masses for the hydrogen atoms when calculating the normal vibrations in the harmonic approximation.