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Science 29 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5795, pp. 1951 - 1955
DOI: 10.1126/science.1132178
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Reports

Ultrafast Carbon-Carbon Single-Bond Rotational Isomerization in Room-Temperature Solution

Junrong Zheng, Kyungwon Kwak, Jia Xie, M. D. Fayer

Generally, rotational isomerization about the carbon-carbon single bond in simple ethane derivatives in room-temperature solution under thermal equilibrium conditions has been too fast to measure. We achieved this goal using two-dimensional infrared vibrational echo spectroscopy to observe isomerization between the gauche and trans conformations of an ethane derivative, 1-fluoro-2-isocyanato-ethane (1), in a CCl4 solution at room temperature. The isomerization time constant is 43 picoseconds (ps, 10–12 s). Based on this value and on density functional theory calculations of the barrier heights of 1, n-butane, and ethane, the time constants for n-butane and ethane internal rotation under the same conditions are ~40 and ~12 ps, respectively.

Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)