Vibrational spectra and molecular structure of chiral and racemic 4-phenyl-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one by density functional theory and ab initio Hartree-Fock calculations.

The vibrational frequencies and molecular geometry of (R)- and (rac)-4-phenly-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one (4-POO) in the ground state have been calculated using the Hartree-Fock and density functional method (B3LYP) with 6-31G(d) basis set. The optimized geometric bond lengths are described better by HF while bond angles are reproduced more accurately by DFT (B3LYP). Comparison of the observed fundamental vibrational frequencies of (R)-POO and (rac)-4-POO and calculated results by density functional B3LYP and Hartree-Fock methods indicate that B3LYP is superior to the scaled Hartree-Fock approach for molecular vibrational problems.