FTIR INTERCONVERSION STUDIES BETWEEN 5 FORMS OF METHANOL DIMERS TRAPPED IN SOLID NITROGEN

Thermal and IR induced interconversions between several forms of metha nol dimers trapped in solid nitrogen have been reexamined by means of FTIR spectroscopy. Use of a pass band filter transmitting in the 1200- 500 cm-1 domain allows identification of a highly unstable form, not o bserved in the previous works. Temperature effects and selective photo conversions upon excitation of CO stretching modes with CO2 laser line s enable the barrier heights involved in the conversions between two g roups of conformers to be estimated.