Experimental dipole moments for nonisolatable acetic acid structures in a nonpolar medium. A combined spectroscopic,...

Acetic acid can exist in many possible structural forms depending on its surrounding medium. A recently developed inverse problem methodology (J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 13064-13074) was utilized in order to elucidate acetic acid structures in a dilute nonpolar medium. In this regard, simultaneous and stopped-flow measurements of the bulk solution densities, refractive indices, relative permittivities, and IR spectra of acetic acid in toluene were performed at several different concentrations in a semibatch closed-loop experimental setup at 298.15 K and 0.1013 MPa. This combined IR spectroscopic and dielectric, density, and refractive index analysis was employed in order to distinguish acetic acid structures and to further determine the dipole moments of the monomer, cyclic dimer, and "lumped-sum" open dimers. The infrared spectra were first analyzed to provide qualitative understanding as well as quantitative estimates for each acetic acid species. Subsequently, the dipole moments of these species were calculated using a direct approach which was primarily based on response surface models. The present method allows the determination of individual dipole moments not only for the monomer but also for the cyclic dimer and the open dimer. The results obtained from this study experimentally show that the cyclic dimer with centrosymmetric structure has a dipole moment approximately 0 D. The results also suggest that the linear dimers are present as mixtures of linear dimers structures. The existence of the linear dimers mixture was also indicated by the experimental infrared analysis of the OH-stretching region (particularly for measurements in n-hexane as solvent) and comparison of these spectra with DFT predictions. Finally, the present methodology which incorporates simultaneous physicochemical and spectroscopic analysis is undoubtedly useful for physicochemical characterization for other nonisolatable solute species and self-associated structures in solution.