Electric Dipole Moments and Conformations of ortho-, meta-, and para-Fluoroacetophenones and of ortho-, meta-, and para-Trifluoromethylacetophenones

The dipole moments of ortho-, meta-, and para-fluoroacetophenone and of ortho-, meta-, and para-trifluoromethylacetophenone were determined in dilute benzene and carbon tetrachloride solutions at 25 °C. In addition the dipole moments and the total energies of the above molecules and of acetophenone, fluorobenzene, and trifluoromethylbenzene were computed for different molecular conformations by the INDO molecular orbital approximation. In some cases there is quantitative agreement between the experimental dipole moments and the INDO computed dipole moments. The most probable conformation for different fluoroacetophenone and trifluoromethylacetophenone molecules is suggested.