Cyclohexane revisited: High pressure nuclear magnetic resonance rotating frame relaxation study of the dynamical solvent effects on the conformational isomerization of cyclohexane

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to extend the dynamic range of isomerization rates for cyclohexane in order to determine with high accuracy whether the barrier height to isomerization is pressure dependent. Therefore, the effect of pressure and temperature on the conformational isomerization of cyclohexane in carbon disulfide solvent has been investigated using the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) rotating frame relaxation technique. This technique, used for the first time in pressure studies of chemical exchange, allows the measurement of isomerization dynamics over a wide range of pressures and temperatures. By combining the rotating frame and NMR line shape techniques and generating the isoviscosity plots, it is shown that the barrier height to isomerization is independent of pressure. Since the experimental isomerization rate is accelerated by pressure, the viscosity dependence of the reduced transmission coefficient shows that the isomerization falls into the energy controlled (inertial) regime of the Kramers model in agreement with our earlier experimental findings. These experimental results, as interpreted in terms of stochastic models of isomerization reactions, indicate a strong collisional coupling and the presence of dynamical solvent effects.