H/D isotope effect in methyl torsional interaction of acetone as calculated by a multicomponent molecular orbital method.

We analyzed the H/D isotope effect in the methyl torsional interactions accompanying two methyl internal rotations for acetone (CH(3)COCH(3)) and deuterated acetone (CD(3)COCD(3) and CH(3)COCD(3)) in the ground state by means of the multicomponent molecular orbital (MC_MO) method, which directly accounts for the quantum effects of protons and deuterons. Our estimated rotational constants and moments of inertia for CH(3)COCH(3) and CD(3)COCD(3) agreed well with the experimental results because of the adequate treatment of protonic and deuteronic quantum effects afforded by the MC_MO method. Because the C-D bond distance in the CD(3) group was shorter than the C-H distance in CH(3) owing to the anharmonicity of the potential, the difference in potential energy surfaces of CH(3)COCH(3), CD(3)COCD(3), and CH(3)COCD(3) was strongly related to the differences induced in geometrical parameters by the H/D isotope effect.

HD isotope effect of methyl internal rotation for acetaldehyde in ground state as calculated from a multicomponent molecular orbital method.

We have analyzed the differences in the methyl internal rotation induced by the HD isotope effect for acetaldehyde (CH(3)CHO) and deuterated acetaldehyde (CD(3)CDO) in ground state by means of the multicomponent molecular orbital (MC_MO) method, which directly accounts for the quantum effects of protons and deuterons. The rotational constant of CH(3)CHO was in reasonable agreement with experimental one due to the adequate treatment of the protonic quantum effect by the MC_MO method. The C-D bond distances were about 0.