15min:

MARILYN E. JACOX AND WARREN E. THOMPSON, Optical Technology Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8441.

New, more detailed studies of the photoionization and Penning ionization of BF₃ trapped in solid neon have confirmed the earlier infrared spectroscopic identification of BF₂ and BF₂ cation and have yielded a revised assignment for the infrared absorptions of BF₃ cation. The position of the absorption attributed to ₃ of that molecule is consistent with the distortion of the ground-state cation from D_3h symmetry because of strong vibronic interaction between levels of the B ²E' state and E' levels of the X ²A₂' ground state, as predicted by Haller and co-workers. The facile reaction of BF₃ with traces of H₂O desorbed from the walls of the vacuum system leads to the stabilization of sufficient BF₂OH for the identification of two vibrational fundamentals of BF₂OH cation.