Jet-cooled fluorescence excitation spectra, conformation, and carbonyl wagging potential energy function of cyclopentanone and its deuterated isotopomers in the S1 (n,π*) electronic excited states

Abstract

The jet-cooled fluorescence excitation spectra of cyclopentanone and its 2,2,5,5-d4 isotopomer have been recorded in the 305–335 nm region. In addition, the spectra of d1, d2, and d3 species were obtained from isotopic mixtures. The electronic band origin of the d0 molecule for the S1 (n,π*) state of A2 symmetry occurs at 30 276 cm−1, while that of the d4 molecule is at 30 265 cm−1. More than 100 fluorescence bands were assigned for each species. These arise from combinations of ν3 (C=O stretch), ν11 (ring-angle bending), ν18 (ring twisting), ν25 (C=O out-of-plane wag), ν26 (ring bending), and ν36 (C=O in-plane wag) and their vibrational excited states. The vibrational frequencies for ν3, ν11, and ν36 are significantly lower in the S1 state than the S0 ground state. However, the out-of-plane ring modes ν18 and ν26 are only slightly shifted. A progression observed for ν26 does indicate that in the S1 state, the bent ring conformation lies about 500 cm−1 above the ring-twisting minimum and corresponds to a saddle point in the two-dimensional ring-twisting/ring-bending potential energy surface. Band progressions for ν18 can be used to calculate the ring-twisting barriers (the barriers to planarity) for the d0 and d4 isotopomers to be 1433 and 1240 cm−1, respectively. Because of limited data, however, these values may be as much as several hundred cm−1 too high. The energies for the C=O out-of-plane wagging states up to v25=9 for each isotopomer were determined for the S1 state and these were used to calculate the C=O wagging potential energy functions for each. In the S1 state, the barrier to inversion of the C=O group is 672±10 cm−1 and the wagging angle is 22°±1°.