The radical cation of 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene (tetramethylbutadiene, TMB) is studied experimentally by
time-resolved resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy and theoretically by ab initio and density functional theory
calculations (UHF, UBLYP, UB3LYP, and CASSCF using the 6-31G(d) basis set). The radical cation is
produced in solution at room temperature by laser flash photolysis, and its RR spectrum is excited in resonance
with the optically allowed, strong, second electronic 22Au ← 12Bg transition around 365 nm. Calculated transition
energies and oscillator strengths agree qualitatively well with reported absorption data. On the basis of the
molecular orbital calculations carried out, the observed RR spectrum is assigned to a mixture of s-trans and
gauche conformers, the first being strongly predominant. A lower limit of 42 kJ mol-1 is estimated for the
torsional energy barrier between the two conformers. Equilibrium geometries and electronic transitions are
discussed.