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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The re Structure of Cyclopropane

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A long-standing controversy regarding the re structure of cyclopropane is resolved by performing high-level quantum chemical calculations and analyzing the experimental rotational constants for C3H6 and C3H4D2 augmented by calculated vibrational corrections. For the latter, a least-squares fit yields the following set of parameters:  re (CC) = 1.5030(10) A, re(CH) = 1.0786(10) A, and αe(HCH) = 114.97(10)°, which compare favorably with both the pure computational result obtained at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVQZ level as well as an earlier estimate of the re structure of cyclopropane based on analysis of gas-phase electron diffraction data. Our results are in rather poor agreement with a structure based on a previous analysis of the rotational constants that used empirically estimated vibrational corrections.