Conformational Landscape and Torsion-Rotation-Vibration Effects in the Two Conformers of Methyl Vinyl Ketone, a Major Oxidation Product of Isoprene.

Methyl vinyl ketone is the second major oxidation product of isoprene, and as such an important volatile organic compound present in the troposphere. In the present study, quantum chemical calculations coupled to high-resolution millimeter-wave spectroscopy have been performed to characterize the ground and first excited vibrational states of the two stable conformers. Equilibrium structures, internal rotation barriers, and relative energies have been calculated at the MP2 and M062X levels of theory. Experimental molecular parameters have been obtained that model the rotational and torsional structures, including splitting patterns due to the internal rotation of the methyl group. For the most stable antiperiplanar (s-trans) conformer, the set of parameters obtained for the ground state should be useful to further model IR spectra up to room temperature. By combining theoretical and experimental data, we obtained a relative energy value of 164 ± 30 cm-1 in the gas phase between the more stable antiperiplanar and the less stable synperiplanar conformers. Moreover, we compared our system with related molecules for the variation in the barriers of methyl rotors in different molecular environments. In addition, the inverse sequence of A and E tunneling substates for the rotational lines of the first excited skeletal torsional state and Coriolis-type coupling with methyl torsion have been observed. For the less stable synperiplanar (cis) conformer, molecular parameters for the ground and first excited torsional states as well as of the first excited skeletal torsional state are presented.