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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Conformational changes in matrix-isolated 6-methoxyindole: Effects of the thermal and infrared light excitations
A J Lopes Jesus1, I Reva1, C Araujo-Andrade1
1CQC, Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, 3004-535 Coimbra, Portugal.
Abstract:
Conformational changes induced thermally or upon infrared excitation of matrix-isolated 6-methoxyindole were investigated. Narrowband near-infrared excitation of the first overtone of the N-H stretching vibration of each one of the two identified conformers is found to induce a selective large-scale conversion of the pumped conformer into the other one. This easily controllable bidirectional process consists in the intramolecular reorientation of the methoxy group and allowed a full assignment of the infrared spectra of the two conformers. Matrices with different conformational compositions prepared by narrow-band irradiations were subsequently used to investigate the effects of both thermal and broadband infrared excitations on the conformational mixtures. Particular attention is given to the influence of the matrix medium (Ar vs. Xe) and conformational effects of exposition of the sample to the spectrometer light source during the measurements.
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Stereoisomerism
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...