Vibrational analysis of 3-trifluoromethylphenol

The molecular geometry and molecular vibrations of 3-trifluoromethylphenol have been investigated by means of quantum chemical calculations and vibrational spectroscopy. The computations indicated the preference of the conformer with the OH hydrogen pointing in the direction of the trifluoromethyl group by 0.9 kJ/mol with respect to the anti conformer. FT-IR spectra of the vapour and CCl₄ solution as well as FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of the pure liquid have been recorded in the range of 4000–150 cm⁻¹. The interpretation of the spectra was based on a scaled quantum mechanical (SQM) analysis for which the initial force field was calculated at the Becke3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) DFT level supplemented with a 6-311++G** basis set. Using 11 scale factors refined in the present study an rms deviation of 7.6 cm⁻¹ between the experimental and SQM frequencies has been achieved. On the basis of the computations 40 of the total of 42 fundamentals of the title compound have been assigned.