Vibrational and electronic spectra of the benzene–benzyl alcohol hetero-dimer ion are measured by photodissociation spectroscopy. The vibrational spectrum shows a prominent band at 3662±3 cm-1, which is assigned to the stretching vibration of the OH group free from intermolecular perturbations. The electronic spectrum shows a broad band around 950 nm, which arises from a charge resonance interaction between the aromatic rings. These results suggest that the ion has a sandwich-like structure suitable for the resonance interaction, without the hydrogen bond between the OH group of benzyl alcohol and the π-electrons of benzene.

This work was supported in part by the Joint Studies Program (1999) of the Institute for Molecular Science and the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 09740450 and 11440177) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.

This is a postprint of an article published by Elsevier B.V. in Chemical Physics Letters, 2000, available online: http://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2614(00)00379-1