A REMPI study of styrene and trans-β-methylstyrene clusters in a supersonic jet

Clusters of styrene and β-methylstyrene (BMS) with argon and of styrene with molecular nitrogen were prepared in a supersonic jet. The vibrational frequencies of the solvated styrenes in S1 are very similar to that of the bare molecule, but some small, non-negligible differences are noted. A correlation between the observed solvent shift and the changes of the vibrational frequencies upon S0 → S1 excitation in the bare molecule is found and discussed. In addition, the binding energies and some van der Waals frequencies are estimated from the data.