A series of hydrogen bonded complexes involving oxirane and water molecules have been studied. In this paper we report on the vibrational study of the oxirane-water complex (CH(2))(2)O-H(2)O. Neon matrix experiments and ab initio anharmonic vibrational calculations have been performed, providing a consistent set of vibrational frequencies and anharmonic coupling constants. The implementation of a new large flow supersonic jet coupled to the Bruker IFS 125 HR spectrometer at the infrared AILES beamline of the French synchrotron SOLEIL (Jet-AILES) enabled us to record first jet-cooled Fourier transform infrared spectra of oxirane-water complexes at different resolutions down to 0.2 cm(-1). Rovibrational parameters and a lower bound of the predissociation lifetime of 25 ps for the v(OH)(b) = 1 state have been derived from the rovibrational analysis of the ν(OH)(b) band contour recorded at respective rotational temperatures of 12 K (Jet-AILES) and 35 K (LADIR jet).

Far/mid-IR signatures of the first hydration step of a flexible biomolecule, the model peptide chain Ac-Phe-NH2, have been investigated in the gas phase using the selective IR/UV double-resonance laser technique. The broad spectral region investigated with the free-electron laser FELIX (150–800 cm–1/70–12 μm) provided a direct access to three intermolecular vibrational modes of monohydrates, in which the water molecule bridges neighboring NH and CO sites of the peptide backbone. The spectral features, analyzed with the help of quantum chemistry, are assigned to the IR activity of the libration and wagging motions of the water molecule together with a strongly mode- and conformer-dependent vibrational coupling between solute and solvent molecules. These resolved spectra obtained in a so far poorly documented spectral region provide benchmark data, which should enable theoreticians of molecular interactions to assess their methods, in terms of both intermolecular potentials and treatment of the vibrational anharmonicity.

Abstract. A commercial PTR-TOF-MS has been optimized in order to allow the measurement of individual organic nitrates in the atmosphere. This has been accomplished by shifting the distribution between different ionizing analytes, H3O+∕ H3O+(H2O)n or NO+∕ NO2+. The proposed approach has been proven to be appropriate for the online detection of individual alkyl nitrates and functionalized nitrates. It has been shown that hydroxyl and ketonitrates have a high affinity towards NO+, leading to the formation of an adduct that allows the easy identification of the organic nitrate (R) from the R–NO+ ion signal. The recorded sensitivities for both ionization modes correspond to detection limits of tens of ppt min−1 in the case of hydroxy- and ketonitrates. Alkyl nitrates exhibit a moderate affinity towards NO+ ionization leading to detection units of few hundreds of ppt and the highest sensitivity in H3O+ mode was obtained for the water adducts signals. However, this method exhibits much lower capabilities for the detection of peroxyacetyl nitrates with detection limits in the ppb range.