Abstract-Quantitative analysis of geometrical isomers of unsaturated esters and alcohols is facilitated with Eu(fod),. Commercial sorbic acid exists in the all-kuns form, while sorbyl alcohol contains c. 10% of the c&4,5 isomer.NMR CHEMICAL shift reagents continue to find widening application in elucidating coupling constants and geometric configurations1 of organic molecules. Esters,2 alcohols and ketones 3 give greatly simplified spectra with Eu(fod), 1 at Eu/substrate concentrations c. 0.2 to 0.5. Recently Swern and Wineburg demonstrared the utility of 1 in elucidating possible branching in the structures of long chain fatty acids. We wish to report that 1 is a useful reagent for qualitative and quantitative estimations of isomer distributions in sorbate esters and sorbyl alcohol.In a related study5 we wished to determine the isomer distribution of 2,4-hexadienoic (sorbic) acid obtained from various natural and commercial sources. Since acids decompose shift reagents,6 commercial sorbic acid (Aldrich) was treated with diazomethane. The resulting ester gave a complex, non-analyzable olefinic (CH,, d). The same spectrum was obtained from ester prepared from sorbic acid, methanol and sulfuric acid. However, when ester prepared from sorboyl chloride and methanol was so analyzed, new multiplets appeared in the spectrum, indicating the presence of another isomer. A second OCH, singlet appeared upfield together with second upfield patterns for both H, and H,. These exhibited the same multiplicity and coupling constants as above. However, the H, and Hs patterns still overlapped with those from all-tram isomer. The terminal CH, showed a new doublet downfield from the corresponding all-trans isomer doublet, with long range doublet splitting,7 in accord with H, and Hb being cis. Integration showed a 17 % concentration of the 2-truns-kis isomer.The induced shift ratio concept elaborated by Swern and Wineburg is of utility in analyzing these data. The induced shift ratio E is independent of shift reagent concentration, and depends only on the relative shifts of a particular proton H, and a standard proton H, in * To whom enquiries should be addressed.
250the same molecule, which in esters, alcohols and ketones is defined as the proton most proximate to the functional group. ZZ = (aEn -~o>,/(~E, -dOL, where bu and do are respectively the chemical shifts with and without the presence of shift reagent. The induced shift ratios of the two sorbic acid isomers, together with the relative chemical shifts of the protons in the two isomers, are given in Table 1. As E in long chain alcohols and esters is a function monotonically decreasing with increasing distance from the complexation site,4 it is of interest to note the inversion of E,, and &oH3 in the isomers 2a and 2b. Examination of structure diagrams shows that H, and C-CH, exchange their spatial locations relative to the ester function as the 4,5-double bond inverts configuration.Although the criteria of lanthanide induced shifts obeying a r-3 'distance only' relationship h...