Theoretical study on metal NMR chemical shifts: Germanium compounds

Germanium chemical shifts were studied theoretically by the ab initio molecular orbital method. The compounds studied were GeMe_4?xCl_x and GeMe_4?xH_x(x = 0–4). The calculated values of the germanium chemical shifts agreed well with the available experimental values. The germanium chemical shift is due to the p-electron mechanism that reflects the ligand electronic effect on the p-p* excitation term in the second-order paramagnetic term. For GeMe_4?xH_x, the chemical shift is almost linear to the number of the ligand, x. On the other hand, a U-shaped dependence is predicted for the chemical shifts of the GeMe_4?xCl_x series and is shown to be caused by the strong and nonadditive electron-withdrawing ability of the Cl ligand. The diamagnetic contribution is relatively small for the chemical shift and is determined solely by a structural factor. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.