Physics Commons^™

Monitoring A Simple Hydrolysis Process In An Organic Solid By Observing Methyl Group Rotation, Peter A. Beckmann, Joseph M. Bohen, Jamie Ford, William P. Malachowski, Clelia W. Mallory, Frank B. Mallory, Andrew R. Mcghie, Arnold L. Rheingold, Gilbert J. Sloan, Steven T. Szewczyk, Xianlong Wang, Kraig A. Wheeler

Physics Faculty Research and Scholarship

We report a variety of experiments and calculations and their interpretations regarding methyl group (CH3) rotation in samples of pure 3-methylglutaric anhydride (1), pure 3-methylglutaric acid (2), and samples where the anhydride is slowly absorbing water from the air and converting to the acid [C6H8O3(1) + H2O → C6H10O4(2)]. The techniques are solid state 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin-lattice relaxation, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, electronic structure calculations in both isolated molecules and in clusters of molecules that mimic the crystal structure, field emission scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and high resolution …