Aromatic carbonyls magnetic properties

Solvent effects on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra have been studied extensively, and they are described mainly in terms of the observed chemical shifts, 8, corrected for the solvent bulk magnetic susceptibility (Table 3.5). The shifts depend on the nucleus studied and the compound of which it is a constituent, and some nuclei/compounds show particularly large shifts. These can then be employed as probes for certain properties of the solvents. Examples are the chemical shifts of 31P in triethylphosphine oxide, the 13C shifts in the 2-or 3-positions, relative to the 4-position in pyridine N-oxide, and the 13C shifts in N-dimethyl or N-diethyl-benzamide, for the carbonyl carbon relative to those in positions 2 (or 6), 3 (or 5) and 4 in the aromatic ring (Chapter 4) (Marcus 1993). These shifts are particularly sensitive to the hydrogen bond donation abilities a (Lewis acidity) of the solvents. In all cases there is, again, a trade off between non-specific dipole-dipole and dipole-induced dipole effects and those ascribable to specific electron pair donation of the solvent to the solute or vice versa to form solvates. 

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