Quadrupole Coupling and Anisotropic Chemical Shift in Dicobalt Octacarbonyl at Liquid Nitrogen Temperature

Structural Insights from 59 Co Solid-State NMR Experiments on Organocobalt(I) Catalysts

A series of fumarate-based organocobalt(I) [CoCp(CO)(fumarate)] catalysts is synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography, multinuclear (¹³ C and ⁵⁹ Co) solid-state NMR spectroscopy, and ⁵⁹ Co NQR spectroscopy. Given the dearth of ⁵⁹ Co solid-state NMR studies on Co^I compounds, the present work constitutes the first systematic characterization of the ⁵⁹ Co electric field gradient and chemical shift tensors for a series of cobalt complexes in this oxidation state. Using X-ray crystallography, the molecular geometry about the Co^I centre is found to be nearly identical in all compounds studied herein. Owing to the ⁵⁹ Co nucleus' large chemical shift range, solid-state NMR experiments are found to be able to detect small structural differences between the individual organocobalt(I) compounds. With the aid of density functional theory calculations on these complexes, it is shown that the ⁵⁹ Co chemical shift anisotropy and the ⁵⁹ Co quadrupolar coupling constant are both extremely sensitive gauges of the Fu-Co-Cp bond angle, providing a link between these ⁵⁹ Co NMR observables and the catalysts' structures.

Cobalt-59 chemical shift and quadrupolar tensors of simple octahedral cobalt(III) complexes

Analysis of the solid-state powder 59Co NMR spectra of ten simple inorganic cobalt(III) complexes at 11.75, and in most cases, 4.7 T have permitted the assignment of specific ligand planes to ranges of values of the observed chemical shift principal components. The relevant chemical shift components were determined from the simulations of the powder line shapes. These simulations also provided the relative orientations of the chemical shift (CS) and electric field gradient (efg) tensors, as well as magnitude and asymmetry of the 59Co quadrupolar coupling. Using symmetry arguments and ab initio calculations, as appropriate or necessary, the orientations of the efg tensors in the molecular frame were deduced. This allowed the determination of the CS tensors in the molecular frame and thus assignment of the ligand planes responsible for the observed values of chemical shifts.Key words: cobalt, chemical shift, quadrupolar coupling, solid state NMR.