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Concept
J-coupling
Summary
In nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics, J-couplings (also called spin-spin coupling or indirect dipole–dipole coupling) are mediated through chemical bonds connecting two spins. It is an indirect interaction between two nuclear spins that arises from hyperfine interactions between the nuclei and local electrons. In NMR spectroscopy, J-coupling contains information about relative bond distances and angles. Most importantly, J-coupling provides information on the connectivity of chemical bonds. It is responsible for the often complex splitting of resonance lines in the NMR spectra of fairly simple molecules.
J-coupling is a frequency difference that is not affected by the strength of the magnetic field, so is always stated in Hz.
The origin of J-coupling can be visualized by a vector model for a simple molecule such as hydrogen fluoride (HF). In HF, the two nuclei have spin 1/2. Four states are possible, depending on the relative alignment of the H and F nuclear spins with the external magnetic field. The selection rules of NMR spectroscopy dictate that ΔI = 1, which means that a given photon (in the radio frequency range) can affect ("flip") only one of the two nuclear spins.
J-coupling provides three parameters: the multiplicity (the "number of lines"), the magnitude of the coupling (strong, medium, weak), and the sign of the coupling.
The multiplicity provides information on the number of centers coupled to the signal of interest, and their nuclear spin. For simple systems, as in 1H–1H coupling in NMR spectroscopy, the multiplicity is one more than the number of adjacent protons which are magnetically nonequivalent to the protons of interest. For ethanol, each methyl proton is coupled to the two methylene protons, so the methyl signal is a triplet. And each methylene proton is coupled to the three methyl protons so the methylene signal is a quartet.
Nuclei with spins greater than 1/2, which are called quadrupolar, can give rise to greater splitting, although in many cases coupling to quadrupolar nuclei is not observed.
Official source
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