Vibrational spectroscopic analysis of 2-chlorotoluene and 2-bromotoluene: A combined experimental and theoretical study

In this work, the vibrational spectral analysis was carried out using Raman and infrared spectroscopy in the range 100–4000 cm−1 and 50–4000 cm−1, respectively, for the title molecules. The molecular structure, fundamental vibrational frequencies and intensity of the vibrational bands are interpreted with the aid of structure optimizations and normal coordinate force field calculations based on Hartee Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) method and different basis sets combination. The complete vibrational assignments of wave numbers were made on the basis of potential energy distribution (PED). The scaled B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) results show the best agreement with the experimental values over the other methods. The effects due to the substitutions of methyl group and halogen bond were investigated. The results of the calculations were applied to simulated spectra of the title compounds, which show excellent agreement with observed spectra.