Proton spin relaxation in some paramagnetic transition-metal acetylacetonate complexes. Comparison between theory and experiment

Proton spin-lattice (T₁) and spin-spin (T₂) relaxation times have been measured for CH₃ protons in a series of paramagnetic transition-metal acetylacetonate complexes and the results interpreted in terms of current relaxation theory, τ_r, the correlation time for molecular reorientation, was estimated from the ¹³C T₁ in the analogous diamagnetic Co(III) and Pd(II) complexes. Using this approach and treating in detail the effects of fast CH₃ group internal motion good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment. In all cases electron-nuclear dipolar coupling dominates T₁ whereas the hyperfine contribution can be important for T₂.