Azide-water intermolecular coupling measured by 2-color 2D IR spectroscopy

Abstract

We present 2-color two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy of intermolecular coupling between azide ions and their solvation shell water molecules. The cross-peak between azide asymmetric stretch vibration and the OD-stretch vibration is a result of low- probability uphill population transfer. Narrow bleach/excited state absorption peak shows selectivity to solvation shell water molecules only and the characteristics of the cross-peak suggest that the solvation shell hydrogen bond potential has similar anharmonic properties as the hydrogen bond in ice Ih. Population and depopulation of the excited state of the OD-stretch vibration happen on 150 fs and 1.7 ps timescales, respectively, with early manifesting heating effects that limit the selectivity to population times up to 1 ps.