Isotope effect on the temperature dependence of the 35Cl NQR frequency in (NH4)2RuCl6

Abstract

The 35Cl nuclear quadrupole resonance frequencies and spin–lattice relaxation times for (NH4)2RuCl6, (ND4)2RuCl6, (NH4)2SnCl6, and (ND4)2SnCl6 were measured in the temperature range 4.2–300K. In these four compounds, it was confirmed that no phase transition occurs in the observed temperature range. At 4.2K, discrepancies of the NQR frequency between non-deuterated and deuterated compounds, which are attributed to the difference in the spatial distributions of hydrogen (deuterium) atoms in the ground states of the rotational motion of ammonium ion, reached to 24kHz and 23kHz for the ruthenate compounds and the stannate compounds, respectively. The separation between the ground and the first excited states of the rotational motion of the ammonium ion was estimated to be 466Jmol−1 and 840Jmol−1 for (ND4)2RuCl6 and (NH4)2RuCl6, respectively, by least-square fitting calculations of temperature dependence of the NQR frequency. For (ND4)2SnCl6 and (NH4)2SnCl6, these quantities were estimated to be 501Jmol−1 and 1544Jmol−1, respectively. It was clarified that the T1 minimum, which has been observed for the stannate compounds at around 60K as a feature of the temperature dependence, was dependent on a method of sample preparation. It is concluded that the minimum is not an essential character of the ammonium hexachlorostannate(IV) since the crystals prepared in strong acid condition to prevent a partial substitution of chlorine atoms by hydroxyl groups, did not show such T1 minimum.