Recognizing, then, that the conformational preferences within the system would provide insight into the degree of conjugation, we calculated the relative energies of a series of different conformations for trifluoromethyl phenyl diazirine, varying the dihedral angle in 10° steps. As a control, we also calculated the energies of the corresponding diaziridine: the saturated analogue of a diazirine, for which no conjugation would be expected.