Photoinduced proton transfer in a pyridine based polymer gel.

We describe an experimental and theoretical consideration of photoexcited proton transfer in a poly(4-vinyl pyridine)/pyridine gel. Evidence was found for two states of a multiple state process analyzed by DFT modeling. According to the latter, following irradiation at 385 nm, the proton donor is the CH group of the polymer main chain and the proton acceptor is the nitrogen of the polymeric pyridine side chain. Proton transfer is made possible through the assistance of a mobile pyridine solvent molecule acting as a transfer vehicle. Proton transfer promotes both a geometrical rearrangement of the vinyl side chain as well as electronic density redistribution. The photoproduct intermediate-the hydrogen-bonded complex between the protonated solvent pyridine molecule and the deprotonated polymeric pyridine side chain-is identified by its Curie law magnetic susceptibility, ESR spectrum, and fluorescence lifetime measurements. The proton transfer from the nitrogen of the solvent pyridine molecule to the pyridine side chain nitrogen, producing pyridinium, is a thermodynamically favorable relaxation process and occurs without an energy barrier. The protonation of nitrogen on the polymeric side chain was detected by solid state NMR spectroscopy performed on a (15)N-polymer enriched gel. The calculations and experimental data suggest a central role for the gel solvent molecule as a catalytic agent and proton transfer vehicle. The process suggested by DFT modeling may have relevance for photosensitive devices in part due to the fact that we have been able to show that long-lived paramagnetism may be included among the inducible properties of soft polymer gels.

Counteranion-dependent mechanisms of intramolecular proton transfer in aprotic solution.

Using the freon mixture CDF(3)/CDClF(2) as solvent we have been able to measure the (1)H and (15)N NMR spectra of the doubly (15)N labeled 2,2'-bipyridinium cation (BpyH(+)) at temperatures down to 115 K. The obtained NMR parameters strongly depend on the type of counteranions indicating the formation of ion pairs. In the case of the bulky poorly coordinating tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-borate as the counteranion a strong intramolecular NHN hydrogen bond was observed in BpyH(+) exhibiting a degenerate intramolecular proton transfer which is of the order of 10(6) s(-1) even at 120 K. By contrast, the weak hydrogen bond acceptor tetrafluoroborate favors a weak intermolecular FHN interaction and quenches the intramolecular proton transfer. The intramolecular proton transfer requires in this case a dissociation of the ion pair which is hindered by the Coulomb interaction. A slow intramolecular proton transfer was observed in the case of dichloroacetate which forms a strong intermolecular OHN hydrogen bond to BpyH(+). The mechanism of this transfer presumably involves a preliminary intermolecular proton transfer from nitrogen towards oxygen followed by a hydrogen bond switch to the neighboring nitrogen to which the proton is then transferred.

Density functional study of the proton transfer effect on vibrations of strong (short) intermolecular O-H...N/O-...H-N+ hydrogen bonds in aprotic solvents.

The structure and spectroscopic properties of the 1:1 complexes of substituted pyridines with benzoic acid and phenol derivatives in aprotic solvents are studied using B3LYP functional combined with the polarizable continuum model approximation. Two extreme structures are investigated: the state without (HB) and with proton transfer (PT). In the presence of an external electric field the O...N distance is contracted and the PT state does appear. The PT state of both the pyridine-benzoic and the pyridine-phenol complexes displays the only IR-active band in the 2800-1800 frequency region, which is located around 2000 cm(-1). However, the nature of the band is different for these two complexes. In the pyridine-benzoic acid complex it is practically a pure stretching vibration of the HN(+) group, while in the pyridine-phenol complex it is the mixed vibration of the bridging proton. A specific feature of the PT state in the pyridine-phenol complex is an IR-intensive band near 600 cm(-1), associated with the asymmetric stretching vibrations of the O(-)...HN(+) fragment. Its intensity is reciprocally proportional to the O...N distance. The appearance of this band provides an efficient criterion to differentiate between the HB and PT states of the 1:1 complexes of phenols with pyridines in aprotic solvents.

H/D isotope effects on NMR chemical shifts of nuclei involved in a hydrogen bridge of hydrogen isocyanide complexes with fluoride anion.

(1)H, (2)H, (19)F and (15)N NMR spectra of a strongly hydrogen-bonded anionic cluster, CNHF(-), as an ion pair with a tetrabutylammonium cation dissolved in CDF(3)-CDF(2)Cl mixture were recorded in the slow exchange regime at temperatures down to 110 K. The fine structure due to spin-spin coupling of all nuclei involved in the hydrogen bridge was resolved. H/D isotope effects on the chemical shifts were measured. The results were compared with those obtained earlier for a similar anion, FHF(-), and interpreted via ab initio calculations of magnetic shielding as functions of internal vibrational coordinates, namely an anti-symmetric proton stretching and a doubly-degenerate bending. The values of primary and secondary isotope effects on NMR chemical shifts were estimated using a power expansion of the shielding surface as a function of vibrational coordinates. A positive primary isotope effect was explained as a result of the decrease of the hydron stretching amplitude upon deuteration. We show that the proton shielding surface has a minimum close to the equilibrium geometry of the CNHF(-) anion, leading to the positive primary H/D isotope effect in a rather asymmetric hydrogen bond. We conclude that caution should be used when making geometric estimations on the basis of NMR data, since the shapes of the shielding functions of the internal vibrational coordinates can be rather exclusive for each complex.

A DFT and AIM analysis of the spin-spin couplings across the hydrogen bond in the 2-fluorobenzamide and related compounds.

In 1975 a large number of coupling constants were measured in 2-fluorobenzamide labeled with (15)N. Some of them were assigned to couplings through intramolecular N-H...F hydrogen bonds (HBs). These couplings change dramatically when CDCl(3) is replaced by DMSO-d(6). In this theoretical paper we provide density functional theory (DFT) calculations that justify the existence of a weak HB in the absence of solvent, while solvents that act as HB acceptors break down the intramolecular hydrogen bond (IMHB) of 2-fluorobenzamide. Atoms in molecules (AIM) analyses and Steiner-Limbach plots were used to analyze the structure of the compounds.

Solid-state NMR studies of aminocarboxylic salt bridges in L-lysine modified cellulose.

LysCel is a cellulose-based material in which l-lysine molecules are grafted with their amino side chains to the cellulose hydroxyl groups. This modification increases considerably the mechanical strength and resistance of cellulosic structures toward water. It has been attributed to the formation of double salt bridges between lysine aminocarboxyl groups in the zwitterionic state. In order to characterize this unusual structure, we have performed high-resolution solid-state (15)N and (13)C CPMAS NMR experiments on LysCel samples labeled with (15)N in the alpha-position or epsilon-position. Furthermore, (13)C-(15)N REDOR experiments were performed on LysCel where half of the aminocarboxyl groups were labeled in 1-position with 13C and the other half in alpha-position with (15)N. The comparison with the 13C and 15N chemical shifts of l-leucine lyophilized at different pH shows that the aminocarboxyl groups of LysCel are indeed zwitterionic. The REDOR experiments indicate distances of about 3.5 A between the carboxyl carbon and the nitrogen atoms of different aminocarboxyl groups, indicating that the latter are in close contact with each other. However, the data are not compatible with isolated aminocarboxyl dimers but indicate the assembly of zwitterionic aminocarboxyl dimers either in a flat ribbon or as tetramers, exhibiting similar intra- and interdimer (13)C...(15)N distances. This interaction of several aminocarboxyl groups is responsible for the zwitterionic state, in contrast to the gas phase, where amino acid dimers exhibiting two OHN hydrogen bonds are neutral.

Synthesis and characterization of chiral benzylic ether-bridged periodic mesoporous organosilicas.

The first synthesis of a chiral periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) carrying benzylic ether bridging groups is reported. By hydrolysis and condensation of the new designed chiral organosilica precursor 1,4-bis(triethoxysilyl)-2-(1-methoxyethyl)benzene (BTEMEB) in the presence of the non-ionic oligomeric surfactant Brij 76 as supramolecular structure-directing agent under acidic conditions, an ordered mesoporous chiral benzylic ether-bridged hybrid material with a high specific surface area was obtained. The chiral PMO precursor was synthesized in a four-step reaction from 1,4-dibromobenzene as the starting compound. The evidence for the presence of the chiral units in the organosilica precursor as well as inside the PMO material is provided by optical activity measurements.

Structural and dynamical properties of guest molecules confined in mesoporous silica materials revealed by NMR.

In the last fifteen years several novel porous silica materials, which are periodically structured on the mesoscopic length scale, have been synthesized. They are of broad interest for fundamental studies of surface-substrate interactions, for studies of the dynamics of guest molecules in confinement and for studies of the effect of confinement on the structural and thermophysical properties of fluids. Examples of such confinement effects include the change of the freezing and melting points or glass transitions of the confined liquids. These effects are studied by combinations of several NMR techniques, such as (15)N- and (2)H-solid-state NMR line shape analysis, MAS NMR and NMR diffusometry with physico-chemical characterization techniques such as nitrogen adsorption and small angle diffraction of neutrons or X-rays. This combination does not require crystalline samples or special clean and well defined surfaces such as conventional surface science techniques, but can work with typical ill-defined real world systems. The review discusses, after a short introduction, the salient features of these materials and the applied NMR experiments to give the reader a basic knowledge of the systems and the experiments. The rest of the review then focuses on the structural and dynamical properties of guest molecules confined in the mesoporous silica. It is shown that the confinement into the pores leads to fascinating new features of the guests, which are often not known for their bulk phases. These features depend strongly on the interplay of the their interactions with the silica surface and their mutual interactions.

NMR provides checklist of generic properties for atomic-scale models of periodic mesoporous silicas.

MCM-41 and SBA-15 silicas were studied by (29)Si solid-state NMR and (15)N NMR in the presence of (15)N-pyridine with the aim to formulate generic structural parameters that may be used as a checklist for atomic-scale structural models of this class of ordered mesoporous materials. High-quality MCM-41 silica constitutes quasi-ideal arrays of uniform-size pores with thin pore walls, while SBA-15 silica has thicker pore walls with framework and surface defects. The numbers of silanol (Q(3)) and silicate (Q(4)) groups were found to be in the ratio of about 1:3 for MCM-41 and about 1:4 for our SBA-15 materials. Combined with the earlier finding that the density of surface silanol groups is about three per nm(2) in MCM-41 (Shenderovich, et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2003, 107, 11924) this allows us to discriminate between different atomic-scale models of these materials. Neither tridymite nor edingtonite meet both of these requirements. On the basis of the hexagonal pore shape model, the experimental Q(3):Q(4) ratio yields a wall thickness of about 0.95 nm for MCM-41 silica, corresponding to the width of ca. four silica tetrahedra. The arrangement of Q(3) groups at the silica surfaces was analyzed using postsynthesis surface functionalization. It was found that the number of covalent bonds to the surface formed by the functional reagents is affected by the surface morphology. It is concluded that for high-quality MCM-41 silicas the distance between neighboring surface silanol groups is greater than 0.5 nm. As a result, di- and tripodical reagents like (CH(3))(2)Si(OH)(2) and CH(3)Si(OH)(3) can form only one covalent bond to the surface. The residual hydroxyl groups of surface-bonded functional reagents either remain free or interact with other reagent molecules. Accordingly, the number of surface silanol groups at a given MCM-41 or SBA-15 silica may not decrease but increase after treatment with CH(3)Si(OH)(3) reagent. On the other hand, nearly all surface silanol groups could be functionalized when HN(Si(CH(3))(3))(2) was used.

Nuclear magnetic resonance and ab initio studies of small complexes formed between water and pyridine derivatives in solid and liquid phases.

The structure and geometry of hydrogen-bonded complexes formed between heterocyclic bases, namely, pyridine and 2,4,6-trimethylpyridine (collidine), and water were experimentally studied by NMR spectroscopy in frozen phase and in highly polar aprotic liquefied freon mixtures and theoretically modeled for gas phase. Hydrogen-bonded species in frozen heterocycle-water mixtures were characterized experimentally using 15N NMR. When base was in excess, one water molecule was symmetrically bonded to two heterocyclic molecules. This complex was characterized by the rHN distances of 1.82 Angstrom for pyridine and 1.92 Angstrom for collidine. The proton-donating ability of water in such complexes was affected by an anticooperative interaction between the two coupled hydrogen bonds and exhibited an apparent pK(a) value of about 6.0. When water was in excess, it formed water clusters hydrogen bonded to base. Theoretical analysis of binding energies of small model heterocycle-water clusters indicated that water in such clusters was oriented as a chain. The NMR estimated rHN distances in these species were 1.69 Angstrom for pyridine and 1.64 Angstrom for collidine. Here, the proton-donating ability of the hydroxyl group bonded to the heterocycle was affected by a mutual cooperative interaction with other water molecules in the chain and became comparable to the proton-donating ability of a fictitious acid, exhibiting an apparent pK(a) value of about 4.9. This value seems to depend only slightly on the length of the water chain and on the presence of another base at the other end of the chain if more than two water molecules are involved. Thus, the proton-donating ability of the outer hydroxyl groups of biologically relevant water bridges should be comparable to the proton-donating ability of a fictitious acid exhibiting a pK(a) value of about 4.9 in water. Driven by the mixing entropy, monomeric water presented in the aprotic freonic mixtures above 170 K but completely precipitated upon further cooling. Traces of water could be suspended in the mixtures down to 130 K in the presence of about 20-fold excess of heterocyclic bases. The obtained experimental data indicated that at these conditions water trended to form the symmetric 2:1 heterocycle-water complexes, whose bridge protons resonated around 6.7 ppm.

Geometrical features of hydrogen bonded complexes involving sterically hindered pyridines.

The ability of strongly sterically hindered pyridines to form hydrogen bonded complexes was inspected using low-temperature 1H and 15N NMR spectroscopy in a liquefied Freon mixture. The proton acceptors were 2,6-di(tert-butyl)-4-methyl- and 2,6-di(tert-butyl)-4-diethylaminopyridine; the proton donors were hydrogen tetrafluoroborate, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride. The presence of the tert-butyl groups in the ortho positions dramatically perturbed the geometry of the forming hydrogen bonds. As revealed by experiment, the studied crowded pyridines could form hydrogen bonded complexes with proton donors exclusively through their protonation. Even the strongest small proton acceptor, anion F-, could not be received by the protonated base. Instead, the simplest hydrogen bonded complex involved the [FHF]- anion. This complex was characterized by the shortest possible N...F distance of about 2.8 A. Because the ortho tert-butyl groups did not prevent the hydrogen bond interaction between the protonated center and the anion completely, an increase of the pyridine basicity caused a further shortening of the N-H distance and a weakening of the hydrogen bond to the counterion.

Hydrogen bonding of water confined in mesoporous silica MCM-41 and SBA-15 studied by 1H solid-state NMR.

The adsorption of water in two mesoporous silica materials with cylindrical pores of uniform diameter, MCM-41 and SBA-15, was studied by 1H MAS (MAS=magic angle spinning) and static solid-state NMR spectroscopy. All observed hydrogen atoms are either surface -SiOH groups or hydrogen-bonded water molecules. Unlike MCM-41, some strongly bound water molecules exist at the inner surfaces of SBA-15 that are assigned to surface defects. At higher filling levels, a further difference between MCM-41 and SBA-15 is observed. Water molecules in MCM-41 exhibit a bimodal line distribution of chemical shifts, with one peak at the position of inner-bulk water, and the second peak at the position of water molecules in fast exchange with surface -SiOH groups. In SBA-15, a single line is observed that shifts continuously as the pore filling is increased. This result is attributed to a different pore-filling mechanism for the two silica materials. In MCM-41, due to its small pore diameter (3.3 nm), pore filling by pore condensation (axial-pore-filling mode) occurs at a low relative pressure, corresponding roughly to a single adsorbed monolayer. For SBA-15, owing to its larger pore diameter (8 nm), a gradual increase in the thickness of the adsorbed layer (radial-pore-filling mode) prevails until pore condensation takes place at a higher level of pore filling.

Low-temperature NMR studies of the structure and dynamics of a novel series of acid-base complexes of HF with collidine exhibiting scalar couplings across hydrogen bonds.

The low-temperature (1)H, (19)F, and (15)N NMR spectra of mixtures of collidine-(15)N (2,4,6-trimethylpyridine-(15)N, Col) with HF have been measured using CDF(3)/CDF(2)Cl as a solvent in the temperature range 94-170 K. Below 140 K, the slow proton and hydrogen bond exchange regime is reached where four hydrogen-bonded complexes between collidine and HF with the compositions 1:1, 2:3, 1:2, and 1:3 could be observed and assigned. For these complexes, chemical shifts and scalar coupling constants across the (19)F(1)H(19)F and (19)F(1)H(15)N hydrogen bridges have been measured which allowed us to determine the chemical composition of the complexes. The simplest complex, collidine hydrofluoride ColHF, is characterized at low temperatures by a structure intermediate between a molecular and a zwitterionic complex. Its NMR parameters depend strongly on temperature and the polarity of the solvent. The 2:3 complex [ColHFHCol](+)[FHF](-) is a contact ion pair. Collidinium hydrogen difluoride [ColH](+)[FHF](-) is an ionic salt exhibiting a strong hydrogen bond between collidinium and the [FHF](-) anion. In this complex, the anion [FHF](-) is subject to a fast reorientation rendering both fluorine atoms equivalent in the NMR time scale with an activation energy of about 5 kcal mol(-)(1) for the reorientation. Finally, collidinium dihydrogen trifluoride [ColH](+)[F(HF)(2)](-) is an ionic pair exhibiting one FHN and two FHF hydrogen bonds. Together with the [F(HF)(n)()](-) clusters studied previously (Shenderovich et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2002, 4, 5488), the new complexes represent an interesting model system where the evolution of scalar couplings between the heavy atoms and between the proton and the heavy atoms of hydrogen bonds can be studied. As in the related FHF case, we observe also for the FHN case a sign change of the coupling constant (1)J(FH) when the F.H distance is increased and the proton shifted to nitrogen. When the sign change occurs, that is, (1)J(FH) = 0, the heavy atom coupling constant (2)J(FN) remains very large, of the order of 95 Hz. Using the valence bond order model and hydrogen bond correlations, we describe the dependence of the hydrogen bond coupling constants, of hydrogen bond chemical shifts, and of some H/D isotope effects on the latter as a function of the hydrogen bond geometries.