Harmonic Frequencies and Potential Energy Distributions of Partially Deuterated Methyl Cyanide

Although the vibrational spectra and force constants of CH₃CN and CD₃CN have been thoroughly studied, partially deuterated methyl cyanide has received much less attention. The infrared spectrum of CD₂HCN has only recently been reported1 and that of CH2DCN has not yet appeared. Normal coordinate analysis for neither partially deuterated species has appeared. We report here harmonic frequencies and potential energy distributions for both partially deuterated methyl cyanide species, CH₂DCN and CD₂HCN, based on force fields and structural parameters from CH₃CN and CD₃CN. The calculated frequencies for CD₂HCN are compared with the observed infrared frequencies. The vibrational interaction of the relatively high CN stretching frequency and the CD stretching frequencies is also discussed.