title: High-Resolution Rotational Spectroscopy Study of the Smallest Sugar Dimer: Interplay of Hydrogen Bonds in the Glycolaldehyde Dimer.
abstract: Molecular recognition of carbohydrates plays an important role in nature. The aggregation of the smallest sugar, glycolaldehyde, was studied in a conformer-selective manner using high-resolution rotational spectroscopy. Two different dimer structures were observed. The most stable conformer reveals C2 -symmetry by forming two intermolecular hydrogen bonds, giving up the strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds of the monomers and thus showing high hydrogen bond selectivity. By analyzing the spectra of the (13) C and (18) O isotopologues of the dimer in natural abundance, we could precisely determine the heavy backbone structure of the dimer. Comparison to the monomer structure and the complex with water provides insight into intermolecular interactions. Despite hydrogen bonding being the dominant interaction, precise predictions from quantum-chemical calculations highly rely on the consideration of dispersion.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany.|The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zinn
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Medcraft
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany.|The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Betz
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany. melanie.schnell@mpsd.mpg.de.|The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany. melanie.schnell@mpsd.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schnell
keywords: carbohydrate recognition; hydrogen bonding; microwave spectroscopy