H and C NMR spectroscopy of 9-acridinones

The ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra of 9-acridinone and its five derivatives dissolved in CDCl₃, CD₃CN and DMSO-d₆ were measured in order to reveal the influence of the constitution of the compounds and features of the solvents on chemical shifts and ¹H-¹H coupling constants. Experimental data were compared with theoretically predicted chemical shifts, on the GIAO/DFT level of theory, for DFT (B3LYP)/6-31G^∗∗ optimized geometries of molecules—also for four other 9-acridinones. This comparison helped to ascribe resonance signals in the spectra to relevant atoms and enabled revelation of relations between chemical shifts and physicochemical features of the compounds. It was found that experimentally or theoretically determined ¹H and ¹³C chemical shifts of selected atoms correlate with theoretically predicted values of dipole moments of the molecules, as well as bond lengths, atomic partial charges and energies of HOMO.