Theoretical studies on the structure of isobutane and the t e r t i a r y-butyl radical

A b initio SCF calculations are reported for the structure of isobutane and the tertiary-butyl radical. The calculation provides valuable information for the structure of the methyl groups in isobutane. For the tertiary-butyl radical, only one minimum is found on the ground state potential energy surface which corresponds to a nonplanar C3v geometry.