Autoionization-detected infrared spectroscopy of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in aromatic cations. II. Unconventional intramolecular hydrogen bonds

A newly developed infrared spectroscopic technique, called autoionization-detected infrared (ADIR) spectroscopy, was applied for a study on hydroxyl-alkyl interactions in cresol and ethylphenol cations. In this technique, vibrational transitions in the ion core of high Rydberg states, which has almost the same vibrational structure as the corresponding bare molecular ion, are measured by detecting the vibrational autoionization signal. The OH stretching vibrations in the rotational isomers of the ortho-, meta-, and para-cresol cations and those of the ethylphenol cations were observed. Remarkable low-frequency shifts of the OH vibration were found only for the cis rotational isomers of the ortho-cresol and ortho-ethylphenol cations, whereas no such shift was found for all the other rotational and structural isomer cations. On the other hand, no remarkable shift of the OH stretch frequency was found for all the isomers in the neutral ground state. These results indicate that an intramolecular hydrogen bond is formed between the hydroxyl and alkyl groups in the cationic ground state of ortho-cresol and ortho-ethylphenol. The remarkable low-frequency shift of the OH vibration also indicates that the alkyl group acts as a proton acceptor in the hydrogen bond. This is a new type of intramolecular hydrogen bond, and the origin of such unconventional hydrogen bond in the cations is discussed.