Ab initio Study of Malonaldehyde Rotamers

Summary.  Malonaldehyde rotamer geometries were optimized using ab initio calculations at the HF level with STO-3G^** and 6-21G^** basis sets. The most stable rotamer is the ω-shaped one with cyclic structure and intramolecular hydrogen bond. The most unstable rotamer is that obtained by rotation of the ω-rotamer around the CO single bond by 180° due to the loss of the additional stabilization contributed by the intramolecular H-bond. The energy barriers separating the different rotamers vary between 13 and 233 kJċmol⁻¹. The structure of the transition states is non-planar with rotation angles varying between 72 and 98°. Received January 18, 1999. Accepted (revised) August 4, 1999