A theoretical study of the rotational isomers of nitrosomethanol by semiempirical (AM1) and ab initio methods

The conformational potential energy surface as a function of the two internal torsion angles in C‐nitrosomethanol has been obtained using the semiempirical AM1 method. Optimized geometries are reported for the local minima on this surface and also for the corresponding points on the HF/6‐31G, 6‐31G*, and 6‐31G** surfaces. All methods predict cis and trans minima which occur in degenerate pairs, each pair being connected by a transition state of Cs symmetry. The AM1 structures are found to compare well with the corresponding ab initio structures. Ab initio HF/6‐31G and HF/6‐31G* harmonic vibrational frequencies are reported for the cis and trans forms of nitrosomethanol. When scaled appropriately the calculated frequencies are found to compare well with experimental frequencies. The ab initio calculations predict the energy barrier for cis → trans isomerization to be between 5.8 and 6.5 kcal/mol with the trans → cis isomerization barrier lying between 2.3 and 6.5 kcal/mol. The corresponding AM1 energy barriers are around 1 kcal/mol lower in energy. The ab initio calculations predict the barrier to conversion between the two cis rotamers to be very small with the AM1 value being around 1 kcal/mol. Both AM1 and ab initio calculations predict interconversion between trans rotamers to require between 1.2 and 1.4 kcal/mol.