Substituent effects on one-bond 15N?13C couplings in N,N-dimethylanilines and nitrobenzenes. Effect of steric inhibition of conjugation

The ¹J(¹⁵N¹³C) values for a series of ring-substituted N,N-dimethylaniline-¹⁵N derivatives and a series of nitrobenzene-¹⁵N derivatives were measured from the ¹³C spectra. In the nitrobenzenes, small changes in ¹J(¹⁵N¹³C) are attributed to the inductive effect of the substituents, since steric inhibition of conjugation has little effect on the magnitude of the coupling. In contrast, steric inhibition of nitrogen lone-pair delocalization in N,N-dimethylaniline derivatives markedly reduces the value of ¹J(¹⁵N¹³C). Theoretical calculations of ¹J(¹⁵N¹³C) values for the two series of compounds were made using standard INDO parameters and a ‘sum-over-states’ perturbation approach. Fair agreement between the calculated and experimental values is found.