title: Cooperative triple-proton/hydrogen atom relay in 7-azaindole(CH3OH)2 in the gas phase: remarkable change in the reaction mechanism from vibrational-mode specific to statistical fashion with increasing internal energy.
abstract: The 7-azaindole-methanol 1:2 cluster [7AI(CH(3)OH)2] undergoes excited-state triple-proton/hydrogen atom transfer (ESTPT/HT) along the hydrogen-bonded network in the gas phase. The measurements of the resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectra of 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(n) (n = 0-3), where subscript n indicates the number of deuterium, and the fluorescence excitation spectrum of 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(0) allowed us to investigate the ESTPT/HT dynamics. By comparing the intensity ratios of the vibronic bands between 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(0) and 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(3) in REMPI spectra, we obtained the lower limit of an acceleration factor (f(a)(low)) of 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(0), which is the ratio of the reaction rate for the excitation of a vibronic state to that of the zero-point state in S(1). The f(a)(low) values are 2.7 +/- 0.83 and 4.0 +/- 1.2 for an in-phase intermolecular stretching vibration (sigma(1)) and its overtone (2sigma(1)) observed at 181 cm(-1) and 359 cm(-1) in the excitation spectrum, respectively, while that of the vibration (nu(2)/sigma(1) or nu(3)/sigma(1)) at 228 cm(-1) is 1.1 +/- 0.83. Thus, vibrational-mode-specific ESTPT/HT occurs in the low-energy region (600 cm(-1)). The excitation of an intramolecular ring mode (nu(intra)) of 7AI at 744 cm(-1) substantially enhances the reaction rate (f(a)(low) = 4.4 +/- 0.98), but the increase of f(a)(low) is not prominent for the excitation of v(intra) + sigma(1) at 926 cm(-1) (f(a)(low) = 5.0 +/- 1.6), although the sigma(1) mode is excited. These results suggest that the ESTPT/HT reaction in 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(0) directly proceeds from the photoexcited states with the internal energy less than approximately 600 cm(-1), but it occurs from the isoenergetically vibrational-energy redistributed states when the internal energy is large. This shows a remarkable feature of ESTPT/HT in 7AI(CH(3)OH)2; the nature of the reaction mechanism changes from vibrational-mode specific to statistical fashion with increasing the internal energy. The hydrogen-bonded network in 7AI(CH(3)OH)2-d(0) is represented by a directed graph. This shows that ESTPT/HT is one of the simplest examples of cooperative phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, and Department of Molecular Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakota
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Komoto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sekiya
mesh_terms: D003903:Deuterium / Q000737:chemistry; D005740:Gases; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D007211:Indoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D000432:Methanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D011522:Protons; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: C023422:7-azaindole dimer; D005740:Gases; D007211:Indoles; D011522:Protons; D006859:Hydrogen; D003903:Deuterium; D000432:Methanol