Size Effect on the Infrared Spectra of Condensed Media under Conditions of 1D, 2D, and 3D Dielectric Confinement

The effect of dielectric confinement on the peak position of intramolecular and a lattice vibration in the infrared spectra of various condensed media is investigated. Liquid benzene, carbon disulfide, and chloroform, as well as amorphous SiO2 and microcrystalline MgO particles, were characterized in this study. The absorption spectra of organic liquids and aqueous solutions of a silica submicrometer powder were measured under a variety of dielectric confinement configurations using Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy. A significant shift of the resonant absorption band of liquid mesoparticles has been observed under dielectric confinement, which is in good agreement with model predictions. A corresponding expression for the dielectric loss spectrum of an absorbing composite medium was obtained using a Maxwell-Garnett generalized equation for the cases of one, two, and three-dimensional dielectric confinement in both ordered and disordered thin layers (disks), rods (wires or needles), and spheres of an absorbing medium. The experimental data on peak positions obtained from the infrared spectra of the organic liquids investigated in this work, as well as from the infrared spectra of amorphous quartz spherical particles and rods, are in good agreement with the calculated data. It is shown using simulations of the absorption spectrum of MgO powder that the approach suggested can be applied under certain conditions to the modeling of the spectra of microcrystalline particles of nonspheroidal shape. © 2010 American Chemical Society.