Rotational isomerism about acyl–oxygen bond in two envelope conformations and vibrational spectral analysis of cyclopentyl acetate—a combined theoretical and experimental study

The s-cis and s-trans isomers resulting from the rotation about the acyl–oxygen bond of two envelope conformations with C5 (neighbour to substituted carbon C4) and C4 as apical atoms in the five-membered ring and vibrational spectra of cyclopentyl acetate are studied with density functional molecular orbital theory at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level. In the case of C5 at the flap and –OAc group in the axial position, it is found that the s-cis isomer (1:s-cis) is more stable than the s-trans isomer (1:s-trans) by 7.46 kcal/mol. The s-cis–s-trans rotational barrier is 15 kcal/mol. The other two conformers with C4 at the flap and –OAc group in the equatorial position, the relative energies of the s-cis and s-trans isomers (2:s-cis and 2:s-trans) with respect to 1:s-cis are found to be 0.45 and 8.21 kcal/mol, respectively. The infrared spectra (200–3200 cm⁻¹) in gas and liquid phase and Raman spectra (3200–150 cm⁻¹) in liquid phase for cyclopentyl acetate and 10 of its isotopomers are recorded. The calculated spectra of all conformers along with the observed spectra has helped study the effect of rotational isomerism on the vibrational spectra. The normal coordinate analysis in terms of non-redundant local coordinates is done for vibrational assignments of the 57 normal modes. The experimental and theoretical results are compared to the corresponding quantities of some similar molecules.