Internal Rotation of the Hydroxyl Group in Isopropanol and the Chirality of the Gauche Form: Fourier Transform Microwave Spectroscopy of (CH(3))(2)CHOD.

The rotational spectrum of the deuterated isopropanol (CH(3))(2)CHOD has been observed by Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy and analyzed to yield tunneling splitting of 4431.4613 (17) MHz, between the antisymmetric and the symmetric gauche forms, which is much larger than the 2400 MHz estimated from the internal-rotation potential function reported in the literature. The potential function for the OH internal rotation has been examined in view of the discrepancy between the observed and estimated tunneling splitting, and it was accounted for by taking into account isotope effects on the potential constants. The deuterium quadrupole coupling effect has been included together with the Coriolis terms in the off-diagonal block of the Hamiltonian matrix for the gauche form. The deuterium quadrupole coupling constants obtained for the trans form were employed to calculate the components of the coupling constants as functions of the internal-rotation angle, and the components at around 120 degrees were compared with the values observed for the gauche form, thereby leading to unambiguous determination of the signs of the constants in the off-diagonal block; the signs are not obtainable from an ordinary analysis of the rotational spectra. The chirality of the gauche form was discussed by placing special emphasis on the effect of intermolecular interactions between two chiral molecules. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.