The ground-state rotational spectrum of the dimethyl ether dimer, (DME)(2), has been studied by molecular beam Fourier transform microwave and free jet millimeter wave absorption spectroscopies. The molecular beam Fourier transform microwave spectra of the (DME-d(6))(2), (DME-(13)C)(2), (DME-d(6))...(DME), (DME-(13)C)...(DME), and (DME)...(DME-(13)C) isotopomers have also been assigned. The rotational parameters have been interpreted in terms of a C(s) geometry with the two monomers bound by three weak C-H...O hydrogen bonds, each with an average interaction energy of about 1.9 kJ/mol. The experimental data combined with high-level ab initio calculations show this kind of interaction to be improper, blue-shifted hydrogen bonding, with an average shortening of the C-H bonds involved in the hydrogen bonding of 0.0014 A. The length of the C-H...O hydrogen bonds, r(O...H), is in the range 2.52-2.59 A.

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Rotational spectra of CnO with n=2, 4, 6, and 8 have been observed by using a Fabry–Perot type Fourier-transform microwave spectrometer cooperated with a pulsed discharge nozzle. The molecules have been generated by an electric discharge of carbon suboxide diluted in Ar, and adiabatically cooled to ≊2 K in a subsequent supersonic expansion. All the observed spectra for these species are characterized as linear molecules in the 3Σ− electronic ground state. Since all the three spin sublevels have been detected even in the free-jet condition, the spin–spin coupling constants have been determined precisely as well as other spectroscopic constants. The coupling constants show rapid increase as n becomes larger, indicating smaller energy gaps between the excited 1Σ+ state and the 3Σ− ground state for the longer species. Along with the recent observation of singlet CnO (n=5, 7, and 9) [Ogata, Ohshima, and Endo, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (submitted)], the present study has established the existence of a complete set of the linear carbon-chain series CnO up to n=9 in the gas phase. The effective C=C bond lengths evaluated from the rotational constants decrease gradually to a converging value of ≊1.28 Å as n becomes larger. No apparent quasilinearity has been observed in the centrifugal-distortion constants of all the members, in contrast to the relevant series of the pure carbon clusters, Cn, some of which (n=3 and 7) have shown substantial nonrigidity for the bending vibration.

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