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The microwave spectra of three isotopologues of the gas-phase heterodimer formed between cis-1,2-difluoroethylene and hydrogen chloride are obtained in the 5–21 GHz region using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy. The molecular structure, determined from the analysis of the spectra and supported by quantum chemistry calculations, has the hydrogen atom of the hydrogen chloride molecule interacting with both fluorine atoms of the fluoroethylene and no interaction between the chlorine atom and the olefin. Although the equilibrium structure has two inequivalent H⋯F interactions, zero-point motion averages over the two equivalent choices for these interactions, rendering the pairs of like atoms (C, H, and F) of the fluoroethylene equivalent, retaining the C2v symmetry of the olefin. This results in only one unique singly substituted 13C isotopologue and in the observed effects on transition intensities due to nuclear spin statistics. The heterodimer structure allows for a strong, linear hydrogen bond between the HCl donor and the fluoroethylene acceptor that is more important here than in the analogous acetylene containing complex, where the interaction between the π electrons of acetylene and an electrophilic hydrogen atom on the olefin compensates for the loss of linearity required for binding to a geminal F/H pair. 

Gas phase homodimers of 3,3,3-trifluoro-1,2-epoxypropane (TFO), a molecule which has shown promise as an effective chiral tag for determining the absolute stereochemistry and the enantiomeric composition of chiral analytes, are explored using a variety of quantum chemistry models and rotational spectroscopy. The potential surface governing the interaction of the two molecules is rapidly explored using the artificial bee colony algorithm for homodimer candidates that are subsequently optimized by quantum chemistry methods. Although all model chemistries employed agree that the lowest energy form of the heterochiral homodimer of TFO ( RS or SR ) is lower in energy than that of the homochiral dimer ( RR or SS ), the energy spacings among the lower energy isomers of each and indeed the absolute energy ordering of the isomers of each are very model dependent. The experimental results suggest that the B3LYP-D3BJ/def2-TZVP model chemistry is the most reliable and provides excellent estimates of spectroscopic constants. In accord with theoretical predictions the non-polar lowest energy form of the heterochiral homodimer is not observed, while two isomers of the homochiral dimer are observed and spectroscopically characterized. Observation and assignment of the spectra for all three unique singly-substituted 13 C isotopologues, in addition to that of the most abundant isotopologue for the lowest energy isomer of the homochiral homodimer of TFO, provide structural information that compares very favorably with theoretical predictions, most notably that the presence of three fluorine atoms on the trifluoromethyl group removes their direct participation in the intermolecular interactions, which instead comprise two equivalent pairs of CH⋯O hydrogen bonds between the two epoxide rings augmented by favorable dispersion interactions between the rings themselves.