The rotational spectrum of epifluorohydrin measured by chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy

The rotational spectrum of epifluorohydrin measured by chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectroscopy is presented. A new CP-FTMW spectrometer capable of measuring the entire 7.5-18.5 GHz spectrum with a single polarizing pulse is described briefly. The CP-FTMW spectrometer takes advantage of recent advances in digital electronics by utilizing a 4.2 GS/s arbitrary waveform generator as a frequency source and a 12 GHz digital oscilloscope to digitize the down converted molecular free induction decay (FID). Signal averaging in the time domain is used to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The rotational constants of three unique conformers of epifluorohydrin were measured, as well as the rotational constants of the three unique C-13 isotopomers and the O-18 isotopomer (in natural abundance) of the most stable conformer. The rotational constants of the two less stable conformers differ significantly from those previously reported [F.G. Fujiwara, J.L. Painter, H. Kim, J. Mol. Struct. 41 (1977) 169-175]. Ab initio calculations were performed for all three conformations and are compared to experimental values. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.