The automated chemical structure analysis of organic compounds has attracted much recent interest. We wish to report the identification of lower paraffines by a computer aided-
13C NMR spectrometry as a link of our automation work. The computation for the identification of paraffines is carried out along the flowdiagram shown in Fig. 1 by feeding the molecular formula and the proton decoupled
13C NMR spectrum of a sample paraffine as input. First, all possible isomeric structures are computed based on the molecular formula and the components, CH
3, -CH
2-, -CH and -C- by the structure-building program previously prepared by one of us (Y. K.). Then the chemical shift of each carbon in every isomeric structure is calculated by the aid of parameters shown in Table I. The numerals in Table I assist to compute the deviation of chemical shift of a particular carbon from that of CH
4 (197ppm relative to CS
2) under the consideration of number and type of neighboring alkyl group(s). Finally, a structure whose predicted spectrum is consistent with that of sample within the limit of ±5 ppm is typed out as the most plausible candidate.
The prediction of chemical shifts of 2, 2-dimethylbutane is explained as an example. As shown in p. 917, C
1 of the compound combines with an alkyl group corresponding to the type I, therefore 32 ppm is adopted as a parameter from Table I and thus the chemical shift of C
1 is calculated by subtraction of 32 from 197. Either C
5 or C
6 is also in the same circumstance as well as C
1. The chemical shift of C
2 attached to the types V and VI is calculated by subtraction of (19+14) from 197. C
3 is computed by subtraction of (32+8) from 197 because of the presence of types I and VI. Finally, C
4 with type III is predicted as (197-13). Thus the predicted values are shown as follows (Numerals in parenthesis express the observed chemical shift.): C
1, 5, 6 165 (165), C
2 164 (163), C
3 157 (157) and C
4 184 (185).
The above-mentioned computation system has been applied to unknown paraffines A, B, C, and D. By feeding the molecular formula C
5H
12 and the spectrum 180, 180, 171, 171, 159 of A to the computer, A was identified with
n-pentane. Similarly it was clarified B (C
6H
14, 180, 173, 171, 171, 166, 152), C (C
7H
16, 175, 175, 166, 166, 166, 160, 155), and D (C
8H
18, 180, 180, 171, 171, 164, 164, 161, 161) were identical with 2-methylpentane, 2, 2, 3-trimethylpentane, and
n-octane, respectively.
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