GC/MS and FT-IR Spectra of Methoxymethanol

In the course of recent investigations of the laser-induced reactions of the alkyl alcohols, irradiations of methanol in the gas phase with a carbon dioxide (infrared) laser produced very interesting results. The principal product of the reaction, formaldehyde, spontaneously reacted with excess methanol to form methoxymethanol, a molecule about which very little is known. Initially, due to the presence of excess reactant still in the sample cell, the infrared spectra displayed the bands of the mixtures of both methanol and methoxymethanol, enabling this laboratory to report only the combined infrared spectra with three infrared bands assigned to methoxymethanol. Additional research utilizing hyphenated chromatographic/spectroscopic techniques significantly advanced this effort. A gas chromatograph interfaced with a mass selective detector (GC/MS) and another gas chromatograph interfaced to a gold-plated lightpipe (GC/FT-IR) enabled the recording of both mass and infrared spectra, respectively. After extensive and innovative research efforts, which included the use of novel subambient temperature lightpipe studies, this laboratory recorded the infrared spectra of isolated methoxymethanol, a scientific first. Research in this area is ongoing. This paper reports the experimental parameters and techniques as well as infrared and mass spectra of all molecules investigated, including methoxymethanol, formaldehyde, and methanol, including one deuterated species.