The use of 17O enriched samples of alcohols to measure the correlation time of the OH internuclear vector works well when the hydroxyl proton exchanges rapidly. For alcohols such as methanol and ethanol the hydroxyl exchange rate for neat samples is relatively slow even at room temperature and significant systematic errors result if slow exchange effects are not considered. For slow exchange the hydroxyl proton, 17OH, signal is a relatively complex function of the chemical exchange rate of the hydroxyl proton, the OH spin coupling (about 80 Hz for alcohols and water) and the relaxation time for the oxygen. The OH linewidth can become so large due to scalar relaxation with the rapidly relaxing oxygen nucleus that the signal becomes very difficult to detect. For neat 17O enriched ethanol at room temperature the oxygen relaxation time is about 3.0 ms and the hydroxyl proton linewidth is over 1000 Hz.
oxygen-17; proton; relaxation time; NMR line width; exchange rate; quadrupole coupling
