Spatial Separation of the Conformers of Methyl Vinyl Ketone

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the spatial separation of conformers of methyl vinyl ketone using an electrostatic deflector, enabling conformer-specific chemical reactivity studies at very low temperatures.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel method to spatially separate conformers of methyl vinyl ketone, facilitating detailed conformer-specific investigations.

Findings

Successful separation of s-cis and s-trans conformers.

Achieved a molecular beam with a rotational temperature of 1.2 K.

Produced a high-density conformer-selected sample for reactivity studies.

Abstract

Methyl vinyl ketone (C$_4$H$_6$O) is a volatile, labile organic compound of importance in atmospheric chemistry. We prepared a molecular beam of methyl vinyl ketone with a rotational temperature of 1.2(2)~K and demonstrated the spatial separation of the \emph{s-cis} and \emph{s-trans} conformers of methyl vinyl ketone using the electrostatic deflector. The resulting sample density was $1.5(2)\times10^{8}~\text{cm}^{-3}$ for the direct beam in the laser ionization region. These conformer-selected methyl vinyl ketone samples are well suited for conformer-specific chemical reactivity studies such as in Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions.