Solid-state NMR studies of inclusion compounds

Abstract

The work contained within this thesis is a study of inclusion compounds using solid-state NMR. Such compounds typically exhibit static and/or dynamic disorder, which precludes the use of diffraction-based techniques to obtain detailed structural information. Hence, due to its ability to probe local environments, solid- state NMR can be used to provide information which would otherwise be inaccessible. However, the dynamic nature of the guest molecules within inclusion compounds can yield unusual results for routinely applied experiments, such as cross polarisation, heteronuclear dipolar decoupling and dipolar dephasing. Therefore, some of the more fundamental aspects of solid-state NMR have first been explored. The inclusion compounds of particular interest are those which contain urea or thiourea as the host species. The ordering of guest molecules and host dynamics have been investigated via both one- and two-dimensional (^13)C and (^1)H NMR experiments for the 2-hydroxyalkane/urea inclusion compounds. For the 1-fluorotetradecane/urea inclusion compound, an approach involving a combination of (^1)H→(^13)C and (^19)F→(^13)C cross-polarisation experiments, with both single-channel (^H) and double-channel decoupling ((^1)H,(^19)F) has been devised to assign (^13)C resonances and hence deduce guest ordering. Steady-state and transient (^19)F MAS NOE experiments have been used to probe the dynamics of the 1-fluorotetradecane/urea inclusion compound. Using the considerable sensitivity advantage of (^19)F NMR, over that of (^13)C, a detailed study of the conformational dynamics exhibited by fluorocyclohexane molecules included within thiourea has been performed via bandshape analysis, selective polarisation inversion and 2D exchange experiments. Intermolecular distance measurements have been determined for adjacent fluoroalkane molecules within urea tunnels using a series of static (^19)F NMR experiments. From the results obtained, conclusions regarding the mutual orientations of adjacent end-groups in such compounds have been made.