Hydrogen transfer in photoexcited phenol/ammonia clusters by UV–IR–UV ion dip spectroscopy and <i>ab initio</i> molecular orbital calculations. I. Electronic transitions

Abstract

The electronic spectra of reaction products via photoexcited phenol/ammonia clusters (1:2–5) have been measured by UV-near-IR–UV ion dip spectroscopy. Compared with the electronic spectra of hydrogenated ammonia cluster radicals the reaction products have been proven to be (NH3)n−1NH4 (n=2–5), which are generated by excited-state hydrogen transfer in PhOH–(NH3)n. By comparing the experimental results with ab initio molecular orbital calculations at multireference single and double excitation configuration interaction level, it has been found that the reaction products (NH3)n−1NH4 (for n=3 and 4), contain some isomers.