Pyridine N-oxide/trichloroacetic acid complex in acetonitrile: FTIR spectra, anharmonic calculations and computations of 1-3D potential surfaces of O-H vibrations.

FTIR spectra of pyridine N-oxide and trichloroacetic acid H-bonded complex in acetonitrile were studied at 20 and 50°C. The calculations of equilibrium configurations of the complex and their IR spectra in harmonic- and anharmonic approximations were carried out at the level of B3LYP/cc-pVTZ/PCM. However both approximations turned out to be incompetent determining the frequency of the O-Н stretching vibration. In order to reveal the causes of essential discrepancies between calculated and experimental data one-, two- and three-dimensional potential energy surfaces (PES) of the O-H…O bridge proton motion in the frame of fixed other atoms in the complex were calculated. The frequencies of O-H…O stretching and bending vibrations were calculated by numerical solution of the Schrödinger equation. It is shown that only the approach of proton motion on the 3D PES allows obtaining a good agreement between the calculated and the experimental values of the frequencies of the О-Н stretching vibrations.