Conformations of furan-, pyrrole-, and pyridine-carbaldehydes: an ab initio molecular orbital study

Abstract

Ab initio molecular orbital theory with the minimal STO-3G basis set was used to study the conformational preferences of furan-2-, furan-3-, pyrrole-2-, pyrrole-3-, pyridine-2-, pyridine-3-, and pyridine-4-carbaldehydes. The calculations yielded conformational energies, potential functions for internal rotation, rotational barriers, stabilisation energies, charge distributions, electric dipole moments, and π-overlap populations. Results were compared with available experimental data, and analysed to identify the main intramolecular factors determining the favoured conformations of these molecules.