NMR chemical shifts of129Xe dissolved in various oxygen and nitrogen substituted straight chain aliphatic compounds

Xenon-129 NMR spectra have been measured for dilute solutions of¹²⁹Xe dissolved in a series of n-alcohols and primary n-alkyl amines, as well as ethylene glycol and water. The chemical shifts recorded for¹²⁹Xe in the alcohols and amines are found to be linearly related to solvent composition expressed in terms of the individual methyl and methylene groups as well as the nitrogen and oxygen bearing functional groups making up these compounds. This behavior is consistent with a simple model which considers the van der Waals contribution to the chemical shift of¹²⁹Xe to result from pair interactions between a dissolved Xe atom and the individual methyl, methylene, and functional groups from which the solvent molecules are derived. The¹²⁹Xe chemical shifts caused by the ?CH₂?, ?NH₂, and ?OH groups are found to be quite similar in magnitude, each being approximately twice that of a ?CH₃ group.