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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Electronic transitions of C₅H₃⁺ and C₅H₃: neon matrix and CASPT2 studies
Jan Fulara1, Arghya Chakraborty1, Adam Nagy1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Two absorption systems of C5H3(+) starting at 350 and 345 nm were detected following mass-selective deposition of m/e = 63 ions in a 6 K neon matrix. These are assigned to the 1 (1)A1 ← X (1)A1 electronic transition of 1,2,3,4-pentatetraenylium H2CCCCCH(+) (isomer B(+)) and 1 (1)B2 ← X (1)A1 of penta-1,4-diyne-3-ylium HCCCHCCH(+) (C(+)). The absorptions of neutral C5H3 isomers with onsets at 434.5, 398.3, 369.0, and 267.3 nm are also detected. The first two systems are assigned to the 1 (2)B1 ← X (2)B1 and 1 (2)A2 ← X (2)B1 transitions of isomer B and C, respectively, and the latter two to ethynylcyclopropenyl (A) and 3-vinylidenecycloprop-1-enyl (D) radicals. The structural assignments are based on the adiabatic excitation energies calculated with the MS-CASPT2 method. A vibrational analysis of the electronic spectra, based on the calculated harmonic frequencies, supports this.
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