Conformational Properties of 1-Fluoro-1-silacyclohexane, C5H10SiHF: Gas Electron Diffraction, Low-Temperature NMR, Temperature-Dependent Raman Spectroscopy, and Quantum Chemical Calculations

Abstract

The molecular structures of axial and equatorial conformers of 1-fluorosilacyclohexane, C5H10SiHF, as well as the thermodynamic equilibrium between these species were investigated by means of gas electron diffraction (GED), dynamic nuclear magnetic resonance, temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy, and quantum chemical calculations (MP2, DFT, and composite methods). According to GED, the compound exists in the gas phase as a mixture of two conformers possessing the chair conformation of the six-membered ring and Cs symmetry and differing in the axial or equatorial position of the Si−F bond (axial = 63(8) mol %/equatorial = 37(8) mol %) at T = 293 K, corresponding to an A value of –0.31(20) kcal mol−1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were employed to obtain the minimal energy path of the conformational inversion. The MP2, G3B3, and CBS-QB3 methods were also employed to calculate the equilibrium geometries and energies of the local minima in the gas phase and in solution. The gas-phase results are in good agreement with the experiment, whereas a combined PCM/IPCM(B3LYP/6-311G(d)) approach overestimates the stabilization of the axial conformer by 0.3−0.4 kcal mol−1 in solution at 112 K. Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy in the temperature ranges of 210–300 K (neat liquid), 120–300 K (pentane solution), and 200–293 K (dichloromethane solution) also indicates that the axial conformer is favored over the equatorial one by 0.25(5), 0.22(5), and 0.28(5) kcal mol−1 (ΔH values), respectively.