Rotational Excitations and Tunneling of Nonequivalent Methyl Groups in Tetramethylstibonium Iodide as Studied by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Inelastic Neutron Scattering

Abstract

Abstract Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and inelastic neutron scattering techniques (INS) have been applied to study the rotational motions and methyl group tunneling in tetramethylstibonium iodide, [Sb(CH3)4 ] I, over er a wide temperature range. Parameters describing the [Sb(CH3)4]+ cation tumbling and the methyl group reorientation at high temperatures and quantum mechanical tunneling of the methyl groups at low temperatures were determined. The results for INS and NMR experiments at low temperatures can be explained in terms of two crystallographically inequivalent methyl groups CH3(1) and CH3(2), which were established earlier by the crystal structure determination. In the INS spectra two tunneling lines at 22.0 μeV for CH3(1) and 1.05 μeV for CH3(2) with inelastic intensities in the ratio 3:1 were observed at T = 4 K. The activation energies derived from proton NMR spin-lattice relaxation time measurements for the thermally activated methyl group rotation are 1.50 kJ/mol for CH3(1) and 3.81 kJ/mol for CH3(2). They are in accordance with the activation energies obtained from neutron fixed-window measurements. The activation energy for [Sb(CH3)4]+ cation tumbling is 50.9 kJ/mol as determined from the high temperature spin-lattice relaxation behaviour. Rotational potentials for the methyl groups are derived. For both kinds of inequivalent methyl groups the threefold potential terms dominate; three- and sixfold potential contributions are shifted by 180°