A phosphorus-31 NMR study of solid carbonylhydridotris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium(I). Unusual MAS sideband intensities in second-order NMR spin systems

Abstract

The CP/MAS 31P NMR spectrum of carbonylhydridotris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium(I), RhH(CO)(PPh3)3 (1), can be described as a tightly coupled ABMX spin system (X = 103Rh). In contrast to the solution 31P NMR spectrum, the three equatorial phosphorus nuclei are nonequivalent in the solid state and this structural feature allows us to measure the two-bond spin–spin couplings, 2J(31P,31P). A new method is proposed for extracting the principal components of the chemical shift tensor from slow MAS NMR spectra in a tightly J-coupled two-spin system. For compound 1, the principal components of the 31P chemical shift tensors calculated using this method are in good agreement with those obtained from NMR spectra of a static sample. The principal components of the 31P chemical shift tensors determined for 1 are compared with those reported previously for Wilkinson's catalyst, RhCl(PPh3)3. The δ22 component of the 31P chemical shift tensors in 1 shows the largest variation with structure. This is ascribed to differences in the orientation of the P—Cipso bond about the equatorial plane of the trigonal bipyramidal structure. Keywords: rhodium–phosphine compounds, AB spin system, 31P chemical shift tensor, magic-angle spinning, molecular structure.