Two-dimensional tunneling Hamiltonian treatment of the microwave spectrum of 2-methylmalonaldehyde

摘要

The molecule 2-methylmalonaldehyde (2-MMA) exists in the gas phase as a six-membered hydrogen-bonded ring [HO-CH=C(CH3)-CH=O] and exhibits two large-amplitude motions, an intramolecular hydrogen transfer and a methyl torsion. The former motion is interesting because the transfer of the hydrogen atom from the hydroxyl to the carbonyl group induces a tautomerization in the ring, i.e., HO-CH=C(CH3)-CH=O -> O=CH-C(CH3)=CH-OH, which then triggers a 60 degrees internal rotation of the methyl group attached to the ring. The microwave spectra of 2-MMA-d0, 2-MMA-d1, and 2-MMA-d3 were studied previously by Sanders [J. Mol. Spectrosc. 86, 27 (1981)], who used a rotating-axis-system program for two-level inversion problems to fit rotational transitions involving the nondegenerate A(+) and A(-) sublevels to several times their measurement uncertainty. A global fit could not be carried out at that time because no appropriate theory was available. In particular, observed-minus-calculated residuals for the E(+) and E(-) sublevels were sometimes as large as several megahertz. In the present work, we use a tunneling-rotational Hamiltonian based on a G(12)(m) group-theoretical formalism to carry out global fits of Sanders' 2-MMA-d0 and 2-MMA-d1 [DO-CH=C(CH3)-CH=O] spectra nearly to measurement uncertainty, obtaining root-mean-square deviations of 0.12 and 0.10 MHz, respectively. The formalism used here was originally derived to treat the methylamine spectrum, but the interaction between hydrogen transfer and CH3 torsion in 2-MMA is similar, from the viewpoint of molecular symmetry, to the interaction between CNH2 inversion and CH3 torsion in methylamine. These similarities are discussed in some detail. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.