The infrared spectrum of 2-methylaziridine from scaled abinitio force fields

Abstract

The structures of the cis and trans invertomers of 2-methylazirdine were optimized at the RHF/6-31G*(0.3) level of theory and the composition of the equilibrium mixture was determined to be trans/cis = 0.71:0.29, in good agreement with the experimental value, 0.66:0.35. The abinitio force field was scaled and a complete assignment of the vibrational spectra of the two conformers is presented. The IR spectrum of 2-methylazirdine was recorded in the vapor phase and in solution (cyclohexane and CCl4). The predicted IR spectrum of the equilibrium mixture agrees very well with the experimental spectrum. The 6-31G*(0.3) basis set is found to provide better geometries and more uniformly scalable force fields than the conventional 6-31G* basis set. Keywords: abinitio force fields, 2-methylaziridine.