• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.2140-2144
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• 2008

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1281-1287
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• 1999

The low-lying electronic states of diazirine and 3,3'-dimethyldiazirine have been studied by high level ab initio quantum chemical methods. The equilibrium geometries of the ground state and the first excited singlet and triplet states have been optimized using the Hartree-Fock (HF) and complete active space SCF (CASSCF) methods, as well as using the Møller-Plesset second order perturbation (MP2) theory and the single configuration interaction (CIS) theory. It was found that the first excited singlet state is of 1 B1 symmetry resulting from the n- π* transition, while the first excited triplet state is of 3 B2 symmetry resulting from the π- π* transition. The harmonic vibrational frequencies have been calculated at the optimized geometry of each electronic state, and the scaled frequencies have been compared with the experimental frequencies available. The adiabatic and vertical transition energies from the ground electronic state to the low-lying electronic states have been estimated by means of multireference methods based on the CASSCF wavefunctions, i.e., the multiconfigurational quasidegenerate second order perturbation (MCQDPT2) theory and the CASSCF second-order configuration interaction (CASSCF-SOCI) theory. The vertical transition energies have also been calculated by the CIS method for comparison. The computed transition energies, particularly by MCQDPT2, agree well with the experimental observations, and the electronic structures of the molecules have been discussed, particularly in light of the controversy over the existence of the so-called second electronic state.