CO2 laser photoacoustic spectra and vibrational modes of heroin, morphine and narcotine

Abstract

Heroin, morphine and narcotine are very large molecules having 50, 40 and 53 atoms respectively. Moderately high resolution photoacoustic (PA) spectra have been recorded in 9.6 μm and 10.6 μm regions of CO2 laser. It is very difficult to assign the modes of vibrations for PA bands by comparison with conventional low resolution IR spectra. The ab initio quantum chemical calculations were used for determining the molecular geometries and normal mode frequencies of vibrations of these molecules for assignments of PA spectra.