Structures and Vibrational Spectra of Protonated Acetone Clusters

The stable structures and vibrational spectra of protonated acetone molecule clusters with different sizes （CH3COCH3）nH +（n=1-7）are calculated at the 6-31G（d）level by means of density functional theory （B3LYP）quantum chemical calculations. The corresponding energies are analyzed at the level B3LYP/6-311+G（3df，2p）in order to obtain more accurate results. The proton affinity of neutral cyclic acetone molecule clusters increases with the increasing of cluster size. The calculated results show that the protonated acetone clusters have certain growth regularity with forming a solvation shell at the beginning and then new added acetone molecule attacking different active sites including the middle carbon atoms and the different methyl in solvation shell. The IR spectra of the protonated clusters are more complicate than that of neutral ones. The strongest peaks result from the movement of the proton between the two oxygen atoms in solvant shell apart from the case of n=1. Carbonyl stretching vibraional peaks split into the more and more and in general the corresponding intensities are weakened due to the protonation with the increasing of cluster size.