Observation of the Ring-Puckering Vibrational Mode in Thietane Cation

Abstract

We have measured the high-resolution vibrational spectra of a thietane (trimethylene sulfide) cation in the gas phase by employing the vacuum ultraviolet mass-analyzed threshold ionization (VUV-MATI) spectroscopic technique. Peaks in the low-frequency region of the observed MATI spectrum of thietane originate from a progression of the ring-puckering vibrational mode (typical in small heterocyclic molecules), which is successfully reproduced by quantum-chemical calculations with 1D symmetric double-well potentials along the ring puckering coordinates on both the S0 and D0 states, the ground electronic states of neutral and cation of thietane, respectively. The values of the interconversion barrier and the ring-puckering angle on the S0 state, the parameters used for the quantum-chemical calculations, were assumed to be 274 cm-1 and 26°. The barrier and the angle on the D0 state, however, are found to be 48.0 cm-1 and 18.2°, respectively, where such small barrier height and puckering angle for the cation suggest that the conformation of thietane cation on the D0 state should be more planar than that of the thietane neutral.