Effects of Centrifugal Distortion and Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling in the Microwave Spectrum of Vinyl Chloride

Abstract

Both a- and b-type rotational transitions have been measured up to J = 30 for the two most abundant isotopic species of vinyl chloride, in the frequency region 8–18 GHz. These have enabled refinement of the rotational and chlorine nuclear quadrupole coupling constants, and evaluation of all first order centrifugal distortion constants. From the quadrupole coupling constants it is concluded that the field gradient around the C—Cl bond is somewhat more symmetric than previously reported. A comparison is made between the centrifugal distortion constants obtained from the microwave spectrum and those calculated using infrared data.