Gas-phase structure determination of dihydroxycarbene, one of the smallest stable singlet carbenes.

Carbenes are reactive molecules of the form R(1)-:C-R(2) that play a role in topics ranging from organic synthesis to gas-phase oxidation chemistry. We report the first experimental structure determination of dihydroxycarbene (HO-:C-OH), one of the smallest stable singlet carbenes, using a combination of microwave rotational spectroscopy and high-level coupled-cluster calculations. The semi-experimental equilibrium structure derived from five isotopic variants of HO-:C-OH contains two very short CO single bonds (ca. 1.32 Å). Detection of HO-:C-OH in the gas phase firmly establishes that it is stable to isomerization, yet it has been underrepresented in discussions of the CH2O2 chemical system and its atmospherically relevant isomers: formic acid and the Criegee intermediate CH2OO.