Effects of Multiple Binding Sites on Studies of Hydrogen Bonding between Nitroxide Radicals and Solvent Molecules

Abstract

The role of more than one binding site on a nitroxide free radical in magnetic resonance determinations of the properties of the complex formed with a hydrogen donor is examined. The expression that relates observed hyperfine couplings in EPR spectra to complex formation constants and concentrations of each species in solution becomes much more complex when multiple binding sites are present, but reduces to a simpler form when binding at the two sites occurs independently and the binding at the non-nitroxide site does not produce significant differences in the hyperfine coupling constant in the complexed radical. Effects on studies of hydrogen bonding between multiple binding site nitroxides and hydrogen donor solvent molecules by other magnetic resonance methods are potentially more extreme.