Ab initio torsional potentials in silole dimers

The potential barriers for the internal rotation of silole dimers are studied theoretically using the ab initio molecular orbital method at the RHF/6-31G** level of calculations. In 2,2'-bisilole, it is found that the anti-conformation is the most stable structure in the ground state and that the potential barrier height for rotation over the perpendicular conformation is 3.3 kcal/mol. 21 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs