Gas-phase electronic spectrum of the indole radical cation

Abstract

The visible and near-UV electronic spectrum of the indole radical cation is measured in the gas phase by photodissociation of indole+-Ar and indole+-He complexes in a tandem mass spectrometer. A series of resolved vibronic transitions extending from 610 to 460 nm are assigned to the D2 ← D0 band system, while weak transitions between 390 and 360 nm are assigned to the D3 ← D0 system, and a stronger, broad, unresolved absorption between 350 and 300 nm is attributed to the D4 ← D0 system. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations are used to assign vibronic structure of the D2 ← D0 band system, and show that the main active vibrational modes correspond to in-plane ring deformations..