Time resolved infrared spectroscopy of femtosecond proton dynamics in the liquid phase

This work of thesis aims to understand the strong mobility of protons in water. Water is fundamental to life and mediates many chemical and biological processes. However this liquid is poorly understood at the molecular level. The richness of interdisciplinary sciences allows us to study the properties which make it so unique. The technique used for this study was the femtosecond time resolved vibrational spectroscopy. Several experiments were carried out to characterize the femtosecond proton dynamics in water. The visualization of the rotation of water molecules obtained by anisotropy measurements will be presented. This experiment is carried out in isotopic water HDO/D2O for reasons of experimental and theoretical suitability. However this is not water. Pure water H2O was also studied without thermal effects across vibrations modes. An intermolecular energy resonant transfer was observed. Finally the localized structure of the proton in water (called Eigen form) was clearly experimentally observed. This molecule is implicated in the abnormal mobility of the proton in water (Grotthuss mechanism). (author)