The origin of the difference in the barriers to inversion in aniline and N-methylaniline

Ab initio computations have been performed on aniline and N-methylaniline using standard STO-3G orbitals to analyze the inversion barrier and the degree of non planarity in the two molecules. Our analysis indicates that the lowering of thei barrier in N-methyl-aniline with respect to aniline is due to hyperconjugation.