Spectroscopic Evidence for the Enhancement by Dissolved Salts of the Mole Ratio of the Gauche to the Trans Form of Ethylene Chloride

Abstract

The infrared absorption spectra of two solutions of tetra-n-butylammonium perchlorate in ethylene chloride, 0.77 and 1.23 v.f., respectively, have been determined at ∼25°C. By comparison of these spectra with the spectrum of pure ethylene chloride it is shown that the mole ratio of the gauche to the trans form of ethylene chloride in each of these salt solutions (1.69 and 1.92, respectively) is significantly greater than it is in pure ethylene chloride (1.3). The degree of dissociation of the salt in each of the two solutions is estimated from the measured values of their equivalent conductance-viscosity products. On this basis it is shown that in each of the solutions an appreciable fraction of ethylene chloride exists near enough to an ion to be appreciably influenced by its electric field.