INFRARED SPECTRAL STUDIES OF ALKALI HALIDE SALT MOLECULE--LEWIS BASE COMPLEXES IN ARGON MATRICES

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of CincinnatiThe reactions of alkali halide salt molecules with a number of Lewis bases have been investigated in argon and nitrogen matrices. Alkali chloride salts, evaporated from a high temperature Knudsen cell, react readily with $H_{2}O$ and $NH_{3}$ to form strongly bound complexes. Intense bands in the regions $3100-3300 \ cm^{-1}$ and $400-500 \ cm^{-1}$ are formed in the $CsCl + (Ar/H_{2}O = 600)$ reaction, and isotopic data using $^{18}O$ and deuterium labeling require a species with two equivalent hydrogen atoms. A structure in which the alkali metal cation is transferred to the base to form a cationic species of the form $(H_{2}OM)^{+}$ ion paired with $Cl^{-}$ is indicated, although a hydrogen bonded form cannot yet be ruled out