Abstract
Femtosecond nonlinear optical spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool with which to probe both the inertial and diffusive dynamics of molecular liquids.1 Only very recently have these techniques been applied to the study of dynamics in complex, strongly-interacting Hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) liquids.2 We present here new results on the study of neat liquid acetic acid, CH3CO2H. The measurements of the inertial and diffusive dynamics were made using the optical-heterodyne-detected, optical-Kerr-effect (OHD-OKE) technique, which is an electronically non-resonant polarization spectroscopy providing a signal linear in the third-order nonlinear-optical response.1a Our measurements have been made as a function of sample temperature, with data taken at 19 and 108 °C. The melting and boiling points of acetic acid are ca. 16.2 and 117 °C, respectively, so our measurements have probed the extremes of the liquid phase. One of the most important uses for such ultrafast solvent relaxation data is to predict the rate of solvent-limited chemical reactions in solution, particularly adiabatic electron-transfer reactions.
© 1994 Optical Society of America
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