RESONANCE RAMAN-SPECTRA OF TRANS AND GAUCHE ISOMERS OF NORMAL-PROPYL IODIDE - EVIDENCE FOR THE DEPENDENCE OF PHOTODISSOCIATION DYNAMICS ON GEOMETRICAL CONFORMATION

Gas-phase resonance Raman spectra of trans- and gauche-n-propyl iodide at 266 nm have been obtained. The trans conformation gives more Raman vibrational intensity overall than the gauche conformation and greater intensity in bending modes relative to the C-I stretching mode. The short-time photodissociation dynamics of the trans- and gauche-n-propyl iodide isomers are inferred from these Raman spectra and are discussed in terms of simple models of the photodissociation. The differences in the resonance Raman spectra of the trans and gauche species appear to be the result of different photodissociation dynamics for the two conformers.