Knowledge Bank

Stable forms of cations of phenol complexed with hydrogen-accepting molecules such as $N(CH3)3,NH3,H2O$, p-dioxane or tetrahydrofuran were investigated with trapped ion photodissociation spectroscopy. Electronic spectra in the range of 366-465 nm reveal that the ground-state ion of the phenol-$N(CH3)3$ and phenol-$NH3$ complexes consist of phenoxy radical and protonated acceptor ions, whereas other ions are complexes of phenol ion with the unprotonated acceptors. Dissociation processes involving the proton transfer in the ground and the excited states of the ions will be discussed.