Magic Angle Spinning 1H-NMR Study of the Spin Density Distribution of Pyridyl Nitronyl Nitroxides in the Crystalline Phase

Abstract

The electron spin density distribution was investigated for p- and m-pyridyl nitronyl nitroxides (p-PYNN and m-PYNN) in the crystalline phase by the temperature dependence of the solid state high resolution 1H-MAS NMR spectrum. The results were compared with that of phenyl nitronyl nitroxide (PNN) for elucidating the effect of incorporation of a nitrogen atom into the aromatic group. For p-PYNN, the magnitude of the negative spin density at 3 and 5 positions of the pyridyl group was suppressed by 30% in comparison with that of PNN and the positive spin density at 2 and 6 positions was slightly enhanced by 10%. On the other hand, the positive spin density at 2, 4 and 6 positions of pyridyl group of m-PYNN was suppressed by 30% in average and the negative one at 5 was also suppressed by 20%. The DFT calculation at UBLYP/6–31G(d, p) level suggested that the molecular geometry largely contributed to the change of the spin density in addition to the effect of incorporation of the nitrogen atom. In fact, the spin density distribution of the aromatic ring of p-PYNN was remarkably reduced in solution compared with that in the crystalline phase.