Room Temperature Gibbs Energies of Hydrogen-Bonded Alcohol Dimethylselenide Complexes

A number of hydrogen-bonded complexes, formed between an alcohol donor and dimethylselenide, have been detected experimentally, at room temperature in the gas phase using FTIR spectroscopy. The Gibbs energy of complex formation has been determined from the measured integrated absorbance of the hydrogen-bonded OH stretching band and the calculated oscillator strength of the associated transition. The OH stretching frequency and Gibbs energy of the selenium hydrogen-bonded complexes are compared to those found in complexes with the same donor molecule and either dimethylether (O) or dimethylsulfide (S) as the acceptor molecule. For a given donor, we found a similar OH stretching frequency in the complexes for each of the three acceptors O, S, and Se. However, the Gibbs energies were found to be less positive (i.e., stronger bound) for the dimethylether complexes (OH·O), as compared to the dimethylsulfide (OH·S) and dimethylselenide (OH·Se) complexes, with the latter two having comparable Gibbs energies.