The microwave spectra of symmetric top polyacetylenes: 1,3,5-Heptatriyne,CH3(CC)3H and 1-cyano-2,4-pentadiyne,CH3(CC)2CN

The rotational spectra of 1,3,5-heptatriyne, CH₃(CC)₃H and 1-cyano-2,4-pentadiyne, CH₃(CC)₂CN have been studied in detail between 26.5 and 40.0 GHz. The molecules have long linear chains of heavy atoms and show characteristic C_3v symmetric top spectra consisting of groups of R-branch lines at regular intervals separated by approximately 2B₀. Six isotopic modifications of CH₃(CC)₂CN have been detected in natural abundance allowing r_s substitution structural data to be derived for this species. Long linear polyacetylenic chains are quite flexible and this dynamic property manifests itself in the appearance of extended sequences of complex vibrational satellites associated with the bending of the chain. The vibrational ground state spectra as well as several low frequency vibrational satellites have been analyzed yielding various vibration-rotation parameters. For CH₃(CC)₃H B₀ = 778.2445 ± 0.0007 and for CH₃(CC)₂CN B₀ = 778.040 ± 0.001 MHz.