Pure rotational spectrum and structural determination of 1,1-difluoro-1-silacyclopentane

Rotational spectrum, structure, and quadrupole coupling of cyclopropylchloromethyldifluorosilane

Cyclopropylchloromethyldifluorosilane, c-C3H5SiF2CH2Cl, has been synthesized, and its rotational spectrum has been recorded by chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. The spectral analysis of several isotopologues indicates the presence of two distinct conformations in the free-jet expansion, which are interconvertible through a rotation of the chloromethyl group. A partial substitution structure is presented for the lower energy conformation and is compared to the equilibrium structure obtained from quantum chemical calculations. Additionally, the presence of the chlorine nucleus leads to the rotational transitions splitting into multiple hyperfine components and χaa, a measure of the electric field gradient along the a axis, is unusually small at merely +0.1393(73) MHz. Various common ab initio and density functional theory methods fail to predict good quadrupole coupling constants (in the principal axis system) that adequately reproduce the observed hyperfine splitting, although diagonalizing the quadrupole coupling tensor from the principal axis system into a nucleus-centered axis system reveals that, overall, these methods calculate reasonably the electric field gradient about the chlorine nucleus. Finally, a total of nine electric dipole forbidden, quadrupole allowed transitions are observed in the rotational spectra of the parent species of the higher energy conformation and the 37Cl isotopologue of the lower energy conformation. These include those of x-type (no change in parity of Ka or Kc), which, to our knowledge, is the first time such transitions have been observed in a chlorine-containing molecule.

Rotational Spectrum and Ring Structures of Silacyclohex-2-ene and 1,1-Difluorosilacyclohex-2-ene

Silacyclohex-2-ene and 1,1-difluorosilacyclohex-2-ene have been synthesized, and the chirped-pulse, Fourier-transform microwave spectra of each have been observed and analyzed from 4.9 to 23.1 GHz. Quantum chemical calculations have been performed at the B3LYP-D3BJ/Def2TZVP level of theory and predict μa to be the largest dipole moment component with a significantly larger value in this component for 1,1-difluorosilacyclohex-2-ene. In accordance with this prediction, the spectra were predominantly a-type with the observation of a few b- and c-type transitions. The signal-to-noise ratio was adequate in both spectra to observe 29Si, 30Si, and all singly substituted 13C isotopologues in natural abundance. All spectra have been fit to a semirigid rotational Hamiltonian and are presented. Analysis of the physical meaning of the fitted parameters is explored and determined to hold for the rotational constants while being more empirical for the centrifugal distortion terms. Experimental structures of both molecules indicate that the quantum chemically calculated structures for the atoms in the ring are a very close depiction of the experimentally determined structures. The structures of each molecule are compared to similar molecules for context, where it is shown that both molecules possess a similar "half-chair" conformation to that of the all-carbon analogue, cyclohexene.

The molecular structure and curious motions in 1,1-difluorosilacyclopent-3-ene and silacyclopent-3-ene as determined by microwave spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations

The molecules 1,1-difluorosilacyclopent-3-ene (3SiCPF₂) and silacyclopent-3-ene (3SiCP) have been synthesized and studied using chirped pulse, Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy. For 3SiCP this is the first ever microwave study of the molecule and, for 3SiCPF₂, the spectra reported in this work have been combined with that of previous work in a global fit. The spectra of each contain splitting which has been fit using a Hamiltonian consisting of semirigid and Coriolis coupling parameters. A refit of the original 3SiCPF₂ work was also carried out. All fits and approaches are reported. Analyses of the spectra provide evidence that the molecule is planar which is in agreement with the high-level calculations, but the source of the splitting in the spectra has not been determined.