The ultraviolet photoelectron spectrum of cyclopropanone has been investigated. Theoretical computations (ab initio, MIND0/3, and CNDO/S) together with the photoelectron spectra of other simple ketones have been used to interpret the spectrum of cyclopropanone and to probe the electronic structure of the molecule. The nonbonding molecular orbital for cyclopropanone is substantially delocalized throughout the molecule. The mode of delocalization is an interaction between the in-plane p atomic orbital on oxygen and the antibonding Walsh molecular orbital on the ring as suggested earlier by Jorgensen and Salem. It has been concluded that photoelectron spectroscopy used in conjunction with molecular orbital calculations provides an excellent means of estimating the amount of delocalization of nonbonding molecular orbitals.The simplest cyclic ketone cyclopropanone has generated considerable interest among organic and physical chemists for many years.' The parent molecule was first synthesized by Turro and Hammond2 and by DeBoer and c o -~o r k e r s .~ Its geometric structure has since been studied by microwave spectroscopy4 and by electron diffraction5 Thomas and cow o r k e r~~.~ have made an extensive study of the gas-phase photochemistry of cyclopropanone and have measured its heat of formation from the appearance potential of the CzH4+ ion.7 Several theoretical studies of cyclopropanone at various levels of approximation have been r e p~r t e d .~-l~ Of primary concern in most of the theoretical studies was whether the most stable isomer of C3H40 is the classical closed ring ketone 1 or one of the tautomers, oxyallyl 2 or allene oxide 3. The extended 1 2 3Huckel method* predicts that 2 is more stable than 1 by 23 kcal/mol and that 2 is more stable than 3 by 21 kcal/mol. However, all of the other methods predict 1 to be more stable than 2 by varying amounts (MINDO/2, 78 kcal/m01;~ INDO, 220" and 232 kcal/mol;I2 ab initio, 83 kcal/mol;I2 and MIND0/3, 66 kcal/molI3). The microwave spectral study4 also strongly indicates that the most stable isomer is 1, although the C2-C3 bond is quite long (1.575 A).Another interesting aspect of cyclopropanone chemistry is the interaction of the nonbonding electrons on oxygen with the strained u bonds of the cyclopropane ring. Jorgensen and Salem14 have pointed out that the in-plane p atomic orbital on oxygen has the proper symmetry to interact with the lowest antibonding Walsh orbital of the cyclopropane ring. The magnitude of this interaction, which lowers the energy of the nonbonding orbital while raising that of the unoccupied ucc* orbital, should become apparent from the photoelectron spectrum of 1.In view of the considerable interest in cyclopropanone among experimentalists and theoreticians, a study of its photoelectron spectrum would seem desirable. This paper reports the UV photoelectron spectrum of cyclopropanone. Theoretical computations (ab initio, MIND0/3, and CNDO/S), qualitative considerations of orbital interactions, and the photoelectron spectra of several other si...