Gas Electron Diffraction and Quantum-Mechanical Study of Dimethyloxalate

The geometrical structure and conformation of dimethyloxalate, CH₃OC(O)–C(O)OCH₃, have been studied by gas electron diffraction (GED) and quantum-chemical calculations (MP2 and B3LYP methods with 6-31G* and cc-pVTZ basis sets). The GED analysis with a dynamic model (T = 323 K) results in a mixture of two planar conformers, anti (C_2h symmetry) and syn (C_2v symmetry) orientation of the two C=O bonds. The energy difference between these conformers is 0.02(0.18) kcal/mol and barrier to internal rotation around the C–C bond is 0.44(0.41) kcal/mol. The CH₃ groups occupy synperiplanar positions with respect to the C=O bonds. The following main geometrical parameters for the anti conformer (Å and degrees) have been derived: r_g(C–C) = 1.532(3), r_g(C=O) = 1.203(2), r_g(C_sp3–O) = 1.436(3), r_g(C_sp2–O) = 1.333(3), (C_sp2–C_sp2–O) = 111.9(1.9), (C_sp2–O–C_sp3) = 116.3(1.6), (O–C= O) = 127.0(1.8).This paper is devoted to the 75th anniversary of gas electron diffraction method.