15min:

ALICIA VEGA-TORIBIO AND ALBERTO LESARRI, Departamento de Química Física y Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valladolid, E-47011 Valladolid, Spain; RICHARD D. SUENRAM, Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA; JENS-UWE GRABOW, Institut für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Callinstraß e 3 - 3A, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.

Following previous microwave investigations by Suenram et al. \footnoteR.~D.~Suenram, D.~J.~Brugh, F.~J.~Lovas and C.~Chu, 51^st ~OSU~Int.~Symp.~On~Mol.~Spectrosc., Columbus, OH, 1999, RB07 we will report on the rotational spectrum of several halogenated ethers used as volatile anaesthetics, including sevoflurane ((CF₃)₂CH-O-CH₂F), isoflurane (CF₃CHCl-O-CHF₂), enflurane (CHFClCF₂-O-CHF₂) and methoxyflurane (CHCl₂CF₂-O-CH₃). This study has been conducted in the 6-18 GHz centimetre-wave region using Balle-Flygare-type FT-microwave spectroscopy. The results will include the analysis of the rotational spectra of minor species in natural abundance (¹³C and ¹⁸O in some cases), structural calculations and auxiliary ab initio modelling. The conformational and structural conclusions will be compared with previous gas-phase electron diffraction and solid-state X-ray diffraction analysis.