Calculation of spectroscopic parameters and vibrational overtones of methanol

Abstract

A high-level quartic ab initio potential energy surface of methanol has been used to calculate spectroscopic constants of the ¹²CH₃OH molecule. These include coefficients of quartic anharmonic resonance terms, Darling-Dennison constants, for stretching states. A model expressed in terms of dimensionless normal coordinates has been employed in the calculation of O—H and C—H stretching vibrational states in high-overtone regions. Both cubic Fermi and quartic Darling-Dennison anharmonic coupling terms have been included in the model in order to take into account strong resonances between different states. The nonlinear least-squares method has been used to optimize some of the model parameters employing experimental term values of ¹²CH₃OH as data. Vibrational assignments are suggested for the first C—H stretching overtone region.