NMR studies on effects of temperature, pressure, and fluorination on structures and dynamics of alcohols in liquid and supercritical states

We measured 1H NMR chemical shifts (delta H) and 1H and 2H NMR spin-lattice relaxation times (1H- and 2H-T1) of methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol, and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol in the temperature range from 298 to 673 K at reduced pressures ( Pr = P/ Pc) of 1.22 and 3.14. The delta H values showed that the degree (X HB) of hydrogen bonding decreased in the order of methanol > ethanol >2-propanol > H2O, and that the hydrogen bonding was much affected by fluorination, because of the intramolecular H-F interactions in supercritical (sc) states. Moreover, 1H- T 1 measurements revealed that the relaxation processes of OH groups in nonfluoroalcohols are controlled by dipole-dipole (DD) and spin-rotation (SR) mechanisms below and above the critical temperature (Tc), while the cross-correlation effects connected with intramolecular DD interactions between a carbon atom and an adjacent proton played an important role for hydrocarbon groups (CHn, n = 1-3) under sc conditions. This interpretation was also supported by two other results. The first is that the intramolecular H-F interactions strongly inhibit the internal rotation of CH and CH2 groups of sc fluoroalcohols, and the second is that the molecular reorientational correlation times (tauc(D)) obtained from 2H- T 1 values of deuterated hydrocarbon groups (CDn ) at temperatures above T c have significantly less temperature dependence than those of OD groups. Actually, the apparent activation energy (DeltaEa) for molecular reorientational motions in sc alcohols was smaller compared with liquid alcohols, being about 1 order of magnitude.