A High-Precision Carbon-13 Shift Thermometer for the Temperature Range 100–300 K

The first carbon-13 shift thermometer for the temperature range of 100–300 K is based on the very rapid equilibration of a pair of semibullvalene valence tautomers. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium constant is reflected in strongly temperature-dependent shift differences Δδ between averaged signals, e.g.,d(Δδ)/dT= 0.051 ppm K⁻¹at 300, 0.087 ppm K⁻¹at 200, and 0.175 ppm K⁻¹at 110 K for the quaternary carbon atoms C2 and C6. At 37 temperaturesT, which were measured with calibrated platinum resistance thermometers, shift differences Δδ were taken from nondecoupled carbon-13 spectra recorded from solutions of 1 in mixtures of chlorodifluoromethane and deuterated dimethyl ether without spinning. The least-squares fit of these Δδ vsTdata to a polynomial equation of the fourth degree (Eq. 5],r²= 0.9999) allows the calculation of temperatures from measured shift differences with a standard deviation of 0.46 K and an estimated error of about 1 K. The heating effects of WALTZ-16 decoupling and the influence of solvents on Δδ are investigated. A comparison with existing NMR thermometers demonstrates the superior performance of the new carbon-13 shift thermometer with respect to precision and the accessible temperature range.