The Identification Of Inoh In The Gas-Phase And Determination Of Its Geometric Structure

The first gas phase observation of the species InOH is reported through the detection of its electronic spectrum in the near ultraviolet region, between 345 and 377 nm. The molecule was generated by the high temperature reaction between H2O and In metal or between H-2 and In2O3, and cooled in a free jet expansion. Two separate electronic transitions have been identified and are tentatively assigned as alpha(1)A'<--($) over tilde X(1)A' and beta(1)A''<--($) over tilde X(1)A'. Values for the vibrational wavenumbers nu(2) (bending vibration) and nu(3) (In-O stretching vibration) have been determined for InOH and InOD in all three electronic states involved. There is evidence that the molecule is quasilinear in its ground electronic State which somewhat complicates the values determined for nu(2) in this state. Rotational structure was easily resolved at the lowest temperature achieved in this work (T(rot)approximate to 12 K). Analysis of this structure shows that the molecule is bent in all of the electronic states studied, with a bond angle of about 132 degrees in the ($) over tilde X state and about 105 degrees in the alpha and beta states.