An ab initio potential function for the ν13 vibrational mode of 1,3-butadiene

Abstract

The restricted potential of the ν 13 torsional mode of 1,3-butadiene has been determined from ab initio calculations. The relative energy and geometry of the second rotamer were calculated with the optimized couple cluster method with double substitutions. This ab initio level provides that the second stable structure attaches to a gauche form situated at 140.8°. The potential energy function was obtained by fitting to a symmetry-adapted Fourier series the total electronic energies of several selected conformations. These energies were calculated by the Möller-Plesset perturbation theory up to the second order (MP2) with full and partial optimization of the geometry. Torsional Raman band positions and fundamental frequencies were determined from the periodic potentials with a good agreement with experimental data. The convenience of performing fully optimized calculations to determine the restricted function is also refuted.