Article
The frequencies of the O-D stretching vibrations of CH3COOD have been measured in the liquid and vapour phases and in the form of molecular associations with deoxycholic acid and cholesterol. The spectra confirm that the vapour phase is a mixture of monomeric and dimeric forms at room temperature. The vibrational assignment made for the gaseous phase is used in conjunction with prior data available on the monomeric O-D stretching frequencies in solutions to explain the spectroscopic behaviour of the molecular complexes. The pattern of frequency shifts suggests that deuterium bonding links the cholesterol and CH3COOD in the hydrophilic regions and that the self association of the heavy acid is limited to the dimeric species in the complex with deoxycholic acid. Extra absorption bands observed in the spectral region characteristic of the deuterium bond vibrations are tentatively considered to arise from O-D groups in different local environments with different vibrational energies compared with the D-bonded species. Further evidence for steroid-CH3COOD interactions is obtained from a study of the O-H and CbetaO stretching vibrations of the compounds.Key words: acetic acid-d, complexation with deoxycholic acid and cholesterol, infrared spectroscopy.