A comparative study of vibrational energy relaxation (VER) between the monohydrated complexes of phenol-d0 and phenol-d1 is investigated in a supersonic molecular beam. The direct time-resolved measurement of energy redistribution from the phenolic OH/OD stretching mode of the phenol-d0-H2O/phenol-d1-D2O is performed by picosecond IR-UV pump-probe spectroscopy. Two complexes follow the same relaxation process that begins with the intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) and the intermolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR), which is followed by the vibrational predissociation (VP). The difference in the relaxation lifetimes between them is discussed by anharmonic force field and RRKM calculations. Anharmonic analysis implies that intra- (IVR) and intermolecular (IVR) relaxations occur in parallel in the complexes. The RRKM-predicted dissociation (VP) lifetimes show qualitative agreement with the observed results, suggesting that VP takes place after the statistical energy distribution in the complexes.

This work is supported by MEXT for the Scientific Research on Priority Area “Molecular Science for Supra Functional Systems” (No. 477).

This is a postprint of an article published by Elsevier B.V. in Chemical physics, 2013, available online: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301010413001201