Peter Groner

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Director of Laboratories

Links More Information Courses & Personal Site Contact Office: 410A RHFH Phone: 816-235-5988 Fax: 816-235-5502 E-mail: gronerp@umkc.edu

Current research interests

In the field of molecular spectroscopy, vibrational (infrared and Raman) and rotational (microwave) spectroscopy of molecules in the gaseous phase is especially well suited to derive information about the geometrical structure of molecules, the relative stability of conformers, and the barriers to internal conversion processes such as internal rotation or inversion.

If several large-amplitude internal motions are possible in a molecule, the determination of partial multi-dimensional potential energy surfaces of such molecules from experimental data is a challenge. Rotational and vibrational spectra of such molecules are more complicated than the spectra of relatively rigid molecules, but they contain more information (which may be difficult to extract). Rotational spectra of small molecules with two equivalent methyl groups as in acetone (CH₃COCH₃, with C_2v symmetry), dimethyl ether (CH₃OCH₃, C_2v symmetry), dimethyl diselenide (CH₃⁸⁰Se⁸⁰SeCH₃, C₂ symmetry) and 2-fluoropropane ((CH₃)₂CHF, C_s symmetry) or with inequivalent methyl groups as in trans-ethyl methyl ether (CH₃CH₂OCH₃) or asymmetric dimethyl diselenide (CH₃⁷⁸Se⁸⁰SeCH₃) are analyzed with effective Hamiltonians appropriate for such systems. In many instances, the observed spectral frequencies can be reproduced to within experimental uncertainties. This work is also of interest to radio astronomers because some of these molecules have been detected in interstellar clouds. Results from such analyses, particularly from molecules in vibrationally excited states, can be used together with torsional data from infrared and Raman spectra to derive two-dimensional potential energy surfaces.