MICROSCOPIC SHIFTS OF SIZE-ASSIGNED PARA-CRESOL/H2O-CLUSTER SPECTRA

p-cresol and its complexes with H2O and CH3OH were cooled in a pulsed supersonic free jet and studied by resonant multiphoton ionization with time-of-flight mass analysis. Detailed mass and concentration analysis allowed an unambiguous assignment of cluster size. The electronic origins of p-cresol (H2O) 1,2,3 show irregular red- and blueshifts with change of cluster size, which is referred to the bivalent role of p-cresol as proton donor and acceptor. Ab initio and semiempirical quantum chemical calculations support this interpretation and show the spectral shifts to be essentially due to the inductive effect of the solvent molecules Y exerted on X in X-H...Y. While the vibronic bands of p-cresol (H2O)2 are quite broad, those of p-cresol (H2O)3 are sharp again. The ab initio calculations show that this may be attributed to the quite rigid "open cyclic" structure of p-cresol (H2O)3. Our experimental and theoretical investigations show a completely analogous behavior of phenol (H2O)1,2,3 clusters.