Spectroscopic identification of hydrogen bond vibrations and quasi-isostructural polymorphism in n-salicylideneaniline

Abstract

The ortho-hydroxy aryl Schiff base 2-[(E)-(phenylimino)methyl]phenol and its deutero-derivative have been studied by the inelastic incoherent neutron scattering (IINS), infrared (IR) and Raman experimental methods, as well as by Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Density-Functional Perturbation Theory (DFPT) simulations. The assignments of vibrational modes within the 3500–50 cm−1 spectral region made it possible to state that the strong hydrogen bond in the studied compound can be classified as the so-called quasi-aromatic bond. The isotopic substitution supplemented by the results of DFT calculations allowed us to identify vibrational bands associated with all five major hydrogen bond vibrations. Quasi-isostructural polymorphism of 2-[(E)-(phenylimino)methyl]phenol (SA) and 2-[(E)-(phenyl-D5-imino)methyl]phenol (SA-C6D5 ) has been studied by powder X-ray diffraction in the 20–320 K temperature range.