Abstract
High-resolution infrared spectroscopy indicates that the fundamental OH stretching band of 1-propanol in dilute CCl4 solution is composed of three components caused by rotational isomerism about the C—C and C—O bonds. Although the conformer with the CH3 and OH groups trans to each other is most heavily populated at room temperature, one of the two conformers having gauche CH3 and OH groups is thermodynamically most stable. A conformational equilibrium scheme is postulated in which the most stable conformer has a methyl C—H interacting with one of the lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atom.