Diastereotopic shifts

If a molecule contains several asymmetric C atoms, then the diastereomers show diastereotopic shifts. Clionasterol (28a) and sitosterol (28b) for example, are two steroids that differ only in the absolute configuration at one carbon atom, C-24 Differing shifts of C nuclei close to this asymmetric C atom in 28a and b identify the two diastereomers including the absolute configuration of C-24 in both. The absolute configurations of carboxylic acids in pyrrolizidine ester alkaloids are also reflected in diastereotopic H and C shifts which is used in solving problem 54. 

The presence of asymmetric C atoms in a molecule may, of course, be indicated by diastereotopic shifts and absolute configurations may, as already shown, be determined empirically by comparison of diastereotopic shifts However, enantiomers are not differentiated in the NMR spectrum. The spectrum gives no indication as to whether a chiral compound exists in a racemic form or as a pure enantiomer. 

If the amount of the sample is sufficient, then the carbon skeleton is best traced out from the two-dimensional INADEQUATE experiment. If the absolute configuration of particular C atoms is needed, the empirical applications of diastereotopism and chiral shift reagents are useful (Section 2.4). Anisotropic and ring current effects supply information about conformation and aromaticity (Section 2.5), and pH effects can indicate the site of protonation (problem 24). Temperature-dependent NMR spectra and C spin-lattice relaxation times (Section 2.6) provide insight into molecular dynamics (problems 13 and 14). 

Oxygen-17 NMR spectroscopy has an immense potential for structural analysis of cyclic sulfoxides and sulfones as well as for providing insight into the nature of bonding within these two functional groups . Indeed, in addition to data concerning the NMR chemical shifts for several cyclic sulfoxides and sulfones, NMR chemical shift differences between several diastereotopic sulfonyl oxygens in both cyclic and acyclic systems have been reported . 

For 20- [11] and 40-membered [12] macrocyclic di- and tetra-Schiff bases being derivatives of (R)-BTNOL, the chemical shift differences (AS) measured for diastereotopic methylene protons of BINOL unit in CDCI3 have suggested the presence of the partial rotation around the Ar—O—CH2 bond.27 The splitting of some 1H signals in acetone-d6 was explained as a result of a dynamic interconversion process on the NMR time-scale. 

Zheng et al. [1] postulated that the driving force for placing Zr and B on the same carbon might stem from interactions between the zirconium and oxygen or boron and chlorine atoms. However, an X-ray analysis of 22 revealed that there are no intra- or intermo-lecular interactions between any of these atoms [35]. Compound 22 was also unambiguously characterized by 1H-1H double quantum filtered COSY [36] and 13C-1H heteronuc-lear chemical shift correlation NMR spectroscopy [37,38]. Considerable differences in the chemical shifts of the diastereotopic Cp groups were found in both the XH and 13C NMR spectra. The NMR study unequivocally showed that the methine proton was at-... 

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