title: Spectroscopic observation of critical guest concentration appearing in tert-butyl alcohol clathrate hydrate.
abstract: The tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) is the most hydrophobic of the simple alcohol and by itself does not form a clathrate hydrate with water. A genuine clathrate hydrate is synthesized by exposing a gaseous guest to solid TBA + H2O powders. Here, we examine three consecutive spectroscopic approaches of (1) the occurrence of a "free" OH stretching band (nu(OH)) signal of TBA molecules representing an absence of hydrogen bonding between the host water and guest TBA, (2) a tuning effect for creating fresh cages via the rearrangement of the host-water lattice, and finally (3) the existence of a critical guest concentration (CGC) that appears only when the TBA concentration is dilute. The present findings from this simple three-step approach can be extended to other alcoholic guest species with the specific modifications to provide the new insights into inclusion chemistry.
authors.forename: Youngjune
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Minjun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Woongchul
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Huen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ripmeester