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We report on the structures of two conformers of 2-thiophenecarboxaldehyde as obtained using a combination of molecular jet Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The microwave spectrum was recorded using two spectrometers operating in the frequency ranges of 2.0 to 26.5 GHz and 26.5 to 40.0 GHz. The spectra of all singly-substituted heavy atom isotopologues 13C, 18O and 34S in their natural abundances could be measured and assigned to determine the gas-phase substitution rs and semi-experimental r e SE structures of the most abundant conformer. The spectrum of the 33S isotopologue with its nuclear quadrupole coupling hyperfine structure was analysed, yielding the complete quadrupole tensor with high accuracy. The experimental results are used to map the observed rotational constants to the corresponding molecular structure obtained from quantum chemical calculations, which predicted two conformers with an energy difference of about 6 kJ mol−1 at the MP2/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. Insight into the conformational stability of aromatic heterocyclic carboxaldehydes and bond situations of the sulfur atom extracted from the hyperfine structure of the 33S nucleus are discussed within the frame of the current literature. This work provides an important contribution to the study and characterisation of sulfur-containing volatile organic compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using two molecular jet Fourier transform microwave spectrometers, the rotational spectrum of 2-methylpyrrole was recorded in the frequency range from 2 to 40 GHz. From the torsional splittings due to the internal rotation of the methyl group a barrier height of 279.7183(26) cm−1 was deduced. Because of the 14N nucleus, all lines show a quadrupole hyperfine structure. The microwave spectra were analysed using the XIAM and BELGI-Cs-hyperfine codes. The XIAM code enabled us to reproduce the whole data set with a root-mean-square deviation of 5.6 kHz while the BELGI-Cs-hyperfine code could provide a better root-mean-square almost by a factor of 2 compared to that of XIAM. The experimental results were complemented by quantum chemical calculations. The values of the methyl torsional barrier and the 14N nuclear quadrupole coupling constants are discussed and compared with other methyl substituted pyrroles as well as other aromatic five-membered rings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]