Conformational stability,barriers to internal rotation,structural parameters,ab initio calculations,and vibrational assignment of cyclopropanecarboxaldehyde

The asymmetric torsional potential function, conformational energy difference, vibrational frequencies, and structural parameters of Cyclopropane-carboxaldehyde have been obtained from ab initio calculations at the 3–21G and/or 6-31G^* baiss set levels. These results have allowed for a reinterpretation or clarification of some of the corresponding results obtained from experiment. The conformations that have the oxygen atom oriented cis and trans to the three-membered ring are observed and calculated to be the most stable and high energy forms in the gaseous phase, respectively. From the ab initio calculations using the 6–31 G^* basis set, the energy difference between the two conformers is 114 cm^–1. For the liquid, the trans conformer is more stable and is the only rotamer present in the annealed solid. Based on a combination of results obtained from ab initio calculations, microwave spectroscopy, and the electron diffraction technique,r _o structural parameters have been obtained for both conformations.