Chirality and intermolecular forces: studies using R2PI experiments in supersonic beams

One- and two-color, mass-selected resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI) spectra of the S1←S0 transitions in the bare (R)-(+)-1-phenylethan-1-ol (ER) and its complexes with a solvent molecule (solv: (S)-(+)butan-2-ol (BS), (R)-(−)butan-2-ol (BR), or water (W)) have been recorded after a supersonic molecular beam expansion. The excitation spectrum of bare ER conforms to theoretical predictions at the B3LYP/6-31G** level of theory by pointing to the formation of a single conformer. The one-color R2PI excitation spectra of the diastereomeric complexes [ER–solv] (solv: BS or BR) are characterized by significant shifts of their band origin relative to that of bare ER. The extent and the direction of these spectral shifts are found to depend upon the structure and the configuration of solv and are attributed to different short-range interactions in the ground and excited [ER–solv] complexes. In analogy with strictly related diastereomeric complexes, the phenomenological binding energy of the homochiral [ER–BR] is found to be greater that of the heterochiral one [ER–BS]. The one-color R2PI excitation spectra of the [ER–W] complex displays two signals blue shifted by 54 and 73 cm−1, relative to the S1←S0 band origin of bare ER, which indicate the presence of a O–H···π electrostatic interaction between ER and W.