Theoretical study of internal rotational barriers of electrons donating and electrons withdrawing groups in aromatic compounds.

The presence of internal rotation in sigma bonds is essential for conformational analysis of organic molecules and its understanding is of great relevance in chemistry, as well as in several other areas. However, for aromatic compounds that have substituent groups, withdrawers or donors of electron, there are no data in the literature to explain their rotational barriers. In this context, the work studied the internal rotational barriers of electron donating and withdrawing groups in aromatic compounds using the MP3, MP4, and CCSD(T) methods and the influence of substituents' nature on barrier heights was investigated through calculations based on the theory of Natural Bond Orbitals (NBO) and Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM).