Conformational analysis,barriers to internal rotation and vibrational assignment for dimethylethylamine

The IR (50–3500 cm^?1) and Raman (20–3500 cm^?1) spectra have been recorded for gaseous and solid dimethylethylamine. Additionally, the Raman spectrum of the liquid has been recorded and qualitative depolarization values have been obtained. Due to the fact that three distinct Raman lines disappear on going from the fluid phases to the solid state, it is concluded that the molecule exists as a mixture of the gauche and trans conformers in the fluid phases with the gauche conformer being more stable and the only one present in the spectra of the unannealed solid. From the temperature study of the Raman spectrum of the liquid a rough estimate of 3.9 kcal mol^?1 has been obtained for ΔH. Relying mainly on group frequencies and relative intensities of the IR and Raman lines, a complete vibrational assignment is proposed for the gauche conformer. The potential functions for the three methyl rotors have been obtained, and the barriers to internal rotation for the two CH₃ rotors attached to the nitrogen atom have been calculated to be 3.51 and 3.43 kcal mol^?1, whereas the barrier for the CH₃ rotor of the ethyl group has been calculated to be 3.71 kcal mol^?1. The asymmetric torsional mode for the gauche conformer has been observed in both the IR and Raman spectra of the gas at 105 cm^?1 with at least one hot band at a lower frequency. Since the corresponding mode has not been observed for the trans conformer, it is not possible to obtain the potential function for the asymmetric rotation although estimates on the magnitudes of some of the terms have been made. Significant changes occur in the low-frequency IR and Raman spectra of the solid with repeated annealing; several possible reasons for these changes are discussed and one possible explanation is that a conformational change is taking place in the solid where the trans form is stabilized by crystal packing forces. These results are compared to the corresponding quantities for some similar amines.