Subject: ETHYL CATION--ANSWER

From: "E. Lewars" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 10:20:37 -0400 (EDT)

1997 Aug 1

  Regarding the question about the structure of the ethyl cation:
The ethyl cation has a nonclassical H-bridged structure, from NMR spectra
and ab initio calculations.

 At the HF/3-21G level the bridged structure is a TS between classical
structures, at the HF/6-31G* level a minimum slightly above a classical minimum,
and at the MP2/6-31G* level the classical structure is not even a stationary
point.  For a summary see R. Janoschek, "Irrtuemer und Erfolge bei
quantenchemischen ab-initio-Rechnungen", Chemie in Unserer Zeit, 29(3), 122-132,
1995, and refs therein.  A look in the annual indexes of J Am Chem Soc, ca.
1990- 1995, will probably turn up leading refs too.

  E. Lewars
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