Magnetic field induced alignment effects in 2H NMR spectra

Magnetic field induced line splittings have been recorded in the ²H NMR spectra of perdeuteropyrene and perdeuteronaphthalene dissolved in diethylether. The splittings originate from a small alignment, caused by the combined action of the anisotropic diamagnetic susceptibility χ and the magnetic field H. They are proportional to the anisotropy in χ and to H². These effects provide a new method to study this anisotropy and the influence thereon of intermolecular interactions. Since the splittings are dependent on the directions of the C–D axes relative to the principal axes of χ, they constitute a potential source of stereochemical information.