Cold collisions catalyse conformational conversion.
We have determined the abundance of two different conformational structures of the mixed benzene dimer (C(6)H(6))(C(6)D(6)) in a molecular beam, with various carrier gases. These two T-shaped conformers have a subtle zero-point energy difference of only a few cm(-1), and a transition state barrier of about 64 cm(-1). Nevertheless, depending on the carrier gas, the lowest energy conformer can exclusively be prepared in the molecular beam. Low-energy two-body collisions of the benzene-dimers with the carrier gas atoms are concluded to be responsible for this.
Erlekam
Undine
U
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195, Berlin, Germany. erlekam@fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Frankowski
Marcin
M
von Helden
Gert
G
Meijer
Gerard
G