Extended basis abinitio calculations on conformers of propanal
Extended basis abinitio calculations on four conformations of propanal at the 4-31G and 6-31G** levels followed by many-body perturbative interaction calculations MP2 and MP3 have been conducted. Optimized geometries, heights of rotational barriers, dipole moments, ionisation potentials, and diagonal harmonic force constants have been reported. The s-cis conformer (dihedral angle CCCO = 0°) is found to be more stable than the gauche conformer (dihedral angle CCCO = 129.84°) by 5.07 kJ mol−1. Torisonal potential barriers s-cis/gauche, gauche/s-cis, and gauche/gauche have values 8.81, 3.74, and 1.84 kJ mol−1, respectively. It appears that meaningful values of rotational barriers can be obtained only after a careful optimization of the geometries of the conformations involved.