Conformational Stability of Chloromethyl Silyl Chloride from Temperature-Dependent FT-IR Spectra of Krypton Solutions

The Raman spectra (3200–30 cm^–1) of liquid and solid, and infrared spectra of gaseous and solid chloromethyl silyl chloride, ClCH₂SiH₂Cl, have been recorded. Variable temperature (–105––150°C) studies of the infrared spectra of the sample dissolved in liquid krypton have been carried out. From these data, the enthalpy difference is 177 ± 35 cm^–1 (2.12 ± 0.42 kJ/mol), with the more stable form being the trans conformer, which is consistent with the prediction from ab initio calculations at both the Hartree–Fock level and with electron correlation by the perturbation method to second order. It is estimated that 56% of the sample is in the trans form at ambient temperature. A complete vibrational assignment is proposed for both the trans and gauche conformers based on infrared band contours, relative intensities, depolarization values, and group frequencies, which is supported by normal coordinate calculations utilizing the force constants from the ab initio MP2/6-31G(d) calculations. The optimized geometries have also been obtained from ab initio calculations utilizing several different basis sets with full electron correlation by the perturbation method up to MP2/6-311+G(2d,2p). The results are discussed and compared to some corresponding results for several related molecules.