FT-IR and FT-Raman, NMR and UV spectroscopic investigation and hybrid computational (HF and DFT) analysis on the molecular structure of mesitylene

The spectroscopic properties of mesitylene were investigated by FT-IR, FT-Raman, UV, H-1 and C-13 NMR techniques. The geometrical parameters and energies have been obtained from density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP method and Hartree-Fock (HF) method with 6-311++G(d,p) and 6-311G(d,p) basis sets calculations. The geometry of the molecule was fully optimized, vibrational spectra were calculated and fundamental vibrations were assigned on the basis of the total energy distribution (TED) of the vibrational modes, calculated with scaled quantum mechanics (SQM) method and PQS program. Total and partial density of state (TDOS and PDOS) and also overlap population density of state (OPDOS) diagrams analysis were presented. C-13 and H-1 NMR chemical shifts were calculated by using the gauge-invariant atomic orbital (GIAO) method. The electronic properties, such as excitation energies, oscillator strength, wavelengths, HOMO and LUMO energies, were performed by time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) results complements with the experimental findings. The results of the calculations were applied to simulate spectra of the title compound, which show excellent agreement with observed spectra. Besides, frontier molecular orbitals (FMO), molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and thermodynamic properties were performed. Reduced density gradient (RDG) of the mesitylene was also given to investigate interactions of the molecule. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.