AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ``SOFT'' TORSIONAL MODES OF $(HF)_{3}$

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1987

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Ohio State University

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$(HF)_{3}$ has been previously $shown^{1}$ through the investigation of the H-F stretch vibrational mode to exist in cyclic form in molecular beams. The work reported here marks our effort to extend the investigation of cyclic $(HF)_{3}$ to the soft modes which display torsional motion of the HF monomer subunits. A general computational approach has been implemented for the evaluation of the torsional state energies of weakly bonded n-mers. Essentially, this is a large-scale expansion of the n-coupled rotors, but neglects torsional-stretching interactions or coupling with intra-molecular vibraiton. We show how this can be applied to the $(HF)_{3}$ system, where we have used an idealized, electrostatic surface of Liu and $Dykstra^{2}$. The results of the theoretical study have been used to direct an experimental investigation of these same modes which is currently underway. Preliminary results of this investigation will be presented.

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$^{1}$ D.W. Michael and J. M. Lisy, J. Chem. Phys. 85, 2528 (1986). $_{2}$ S.-Y. Liu and C.E. Dykstra, Chem. Phys. 107, 343 (1986).
Author Institution: School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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