Aggregation of molecules in liquid ethylene glycol and its manifestation in experimental raman spectra and non-empirical calculations

Intra- and intermolecular interactions in liquid ethylene glycol have been studied using the Raman spectroscopy method and non-empirical calculations. The results of non-empirical cal-culations show that an intermolecular hydrogen bond is formed between the hydrogen atom of the OH group in one ethylene glycol molecule and the oxygen atom in the other molecule. The formation of this bond gives rise to a substantial redistribution of charges between those atoms, which, nevertheless, insignificantly changes the bond length. In the corresponding Raman spec- tra, the presence of hydrogen bonds between the ethylene glycol molecules manifests itself as the band asymmetry and splitting.