Isomers and band assignments in the cryogenic vibrational spectrum of the binary complex between water and protonated formic acid using two color, IR-IR photobleaching and H/D isotopic substitution.

ABSTRACT: Protonated formic acid (PFA) is purported to be the active species in the catalytic activation of condensation reactions at the acidic interface of microdroplets. Here, we investigate the fundamental interaction between PFA and water with cryogenic ion vibrational spectroscopy of the binary PFA-H2O complexes generated via electrospray ionization followed by buffer gas cooling to about 20 K. The patterns displayed by the isomer-specific IR spectra of D2-tagged PFA-H2O indicate that two distinct, non-interconverting rotamers are present at low temperatures based on the cis and trans structures of the HCO2H2+ core ion. Both of these occur with the water molecule attached to the OH that is in a cis-configuration relative to the CH group (denoted E), but differ in the E vs Z (cis vs trans relat

SUBMITTER: Bocanegra EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12532046 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature