A Study of H2O2 with Threshold Photoelectron Spectroscopy (TPES) and Electronic Structure Calculations: Redetermination of the First Adiabatic Ionization Energy (AIE)

In this work, hydrogen peroxide has been studied with threshold photoelectron (TPE) spectroscopy and photoelectron (PE) spectroscopy. The TPE spectrum has been recorded in the 10.0−21.0 eV ionization energy region, and the PE spectrum has been recorded at 21.22 eV photon energy. Five bands have been observed which have been assigned on the basis of UCCSD(T)-F12/VQZ-F12 and IP-EOM CCSD calculations. Vibrational structure has only been resolved in the TPE spectrum of the first band, associated with the X̃2Bg H2O2+ ← X̃1A H2O2 ionization, on its low energy side. This structure is assigned with the help of harmonic Franck−Condon factor calculations that use the UCCSD(T)-F12a/VQZ-F12 computed adiabatic ionization energy (AIE), and UCCSD(T)-F12a/VQZ-F12 computed equilibrium geometric parameters and harmonic vibrational frequencies for the H2O2 X̃1A state and the H2O2+ X̃2Bg state. These calculations show that the main vibrational structure on the leading edge of the first TPE band is in the O−O stretching mode (ω3) and the HOOH deformation mode (ω4), and comparison of the simulated spectrum to the experimental spectrum gives the first AIE of H2O2 as (10.685 ± 0.005) eV and ω4 = (850 ± 30) and ω3 = (1340 ± 30) cm−1 in the X̃2Bg state of H2O2+. Contributions from ionization of vibrationally excited levels in the torsion mode have been identified in the TPE spectrum of the first band and the need for a vibrationally resolved TPE spectrum from vibrationally cooled molecules, as well as higher level Franck−Condon factors than performed in this work, is emphasized.