Vibrational assignments and electronic structure calculations for 3-acetylcoumarin

Laser Raman (3500-50 cm(-1)) and IR (4000-400 cm(-1)) spectral measurements have been made on the laboratory prepared solid 3-acetylcoumarin. Molecular electronic energy, equilibrium geometrical structure and harmonic vibrational spectra have been computed at the RHF/6-31G(d,p) and B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) levels of theory. A complete vibrational assignment aided by the theoretical harmonic frequency analysis has been proposed. The B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) geometrical parameters, and frequencies of the C=O in the pyrone and acetyl group are in good agreement with experiment. The difference in the frequencies due to the two carbonyl groups, 50 cm(-1), which is attributed to the conjugation effect, is accounted for by the B3LYP to be 56cm(-1).