Conformational Analysis of 2,2′-bifuran: Correlated High-level Ab initio and DFT Results

The torsional potential for inter-ring rotation in 2,2′-bifuran has been systematically tackled using highly accurate ab initio calculations as well as cost-effective DFT methods. The successful convergence of the ab initio results allowed to confirm the presence of a shallow gauche minimum in the torsional potential curve. The standard DFT methods failed to capture such a tiny energy barrier but, interestingly, the results could be remarkably improved by a mixture of wavefunction and DFT energies in a multi-coefficient fashion; thus, accurate DFT-based and ab initio reference data also become available. Since the experimental evaluation of torsional potentials faces quantitative problems, the outcome of high-level theoretical calculations is expected to be reliably used in further investigation on structure and conformational distribution of this system.