Electronic distribution nuclear quadrupole coupling constants

While S relaxation behaviour can provide interesting information about interactions in solution, nuclear quadrupole coupling constants are a very sensitive probe in the study of the electronic distribution around the sulphur nucleus. 

S nuclear quadrupole coupling constants have been determined from line width values in some 3- and 4-substituted sodium benzenesulphonates33 63 and in 2-substituted sodium ethanesulphonates.35 Reasonably, in sulphonates R — SO3, (i) t] is near zero due to the tetrahedral symmetry of the electronic distribution at the 33S nucleus, and (ii) qzz is the component of the electric field gradient along the C-S axis. In the benzenesulphonate anion, the correlation time has been obtained from 13C spin-lattice relaxation time and NOE measurements. In substituted benzenesulphonates, it has been obtained by the Debye-Stokes-Einstein relationship, corrected by an empirically determined microviscosity factor. In 2-substituted ethanesulphonates, the molecular correlation time of the sphere having a volume equal to the molecular volume has been considered. 

In these studies, the parameters that could provide the most interesting information are likely to be the electric field gradient (nuclear quadrupole coupling constant) at the 33S nucleus and its asymmetry parameter. Indeed, modifications of the lattice structure in different cement matrixes are expected to influence the symmetry of the electronic distribution around the sulphur nucleus more than the chemical environment of sulphur. 

Quantum mechanical calculations of 33S nuclear quadrupole coupling constants are not an easy matter (not only for the 33S nucleus, but for all quadrupolar nuclei). Indeed, the electric field gradient is a typical core property, and it is difficult to find wave functions correctly describing the electronic distribution in close proximity to the nucleus. Moreover, in the case of 33S, the real importance of the Sternheimer shielding contribution has not been completely assessed, and in any case the Sternheimer effect is difficult to calculate. 

The nuclear quadrupole coupling constant is dictated by the size of EFG (eqzz) depending on the charge distribution at a quadrupole nucleus. The eq z magnitude is quantitatively described as the sum of nuclear and electronic terms in equation (5) ... 

The nuclear quadrupole coupling constant (eqQ) is a measure of the departure from spherical symmetry of the electron distribution... 

---