The microwave spectrum and molecular structure of the gas-phase heterodimer formed between argon and glycidol

Abstract

The microwave rotational spectrum of the gas-phase heterodimer formed between glycidol and the argon atom is measured from 5.6 to 18.1 GHz. Despite the existence of two low energy conformers for the glycidol molecule, the spectrum of only one argon-glycidol complex is observed, corresponding to the global minimum energy structure. Higher energy isomers, and indeed less abundant isotopologues of the observed species, are presumably not produced with sufficient number density to be detected under the conditions of the experiment. The spectroscopic constants obtained from the analysis of the spectrum are combined with ab initio quantum chemistry predictions for the dipole moment components to determine the structure of the lowest energy arrangement for argon-glycidol. This structure is compared with those previously observed for the argon complexes of analogous fluoromethyloxirane molecules.