Vibronic spectra, ab initio calculations, and structures of conformationally non-rigid molecules of oxalyl halides in the ground and lowest excited electronic states. Part II: Theoretical investigation of oxalyl chloride

The structures of the oxalyl chloride molecule (COCl)₂ in the ground and the four lowest (two singlet and two triplet) excited electronic states were investigated by means of the CASPT2(8-6)/cc-pVTZ technique. The equilibrium geometric parameters, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and adiabatic energies of the electronic transitions were determined for all states under investigation. The calculations predicted the existence of the trans- and gauche- conformers in the ground state and the trans- and cis-conformers in all excited states. For the ground electronic state, the conformer energy difference and the barriers to conformational transitions were estimated using extrapolation to the complete basis set within a Valence Focal-Point Analysis procedure. The internal rotation in the excited electronic states was found to be strongly coupled with the non-planar symmetric CCOCl wagging. Two-dimensional potential energy surface sections along internal rotation and non-planar coordinates were constructed, and the corresponding anharmonic vibrational problems for the trans-conformer were solved.