This study consists of four major areas of research. First, the relationship between and was extended to Lrl nil homoallylic couplings and was used to determine the relative degree of puckering in a series of dihydroaromatic carboxylic acids. Second, the effect of coupling contributions transmitted through space were examined by theoretical calculations of the intermediate neglect of differential overlap finite perturbation theory type (INDO-FPT) including selective overlap reduction experiments to determine the sign and magnitude of the major through-space contributions and the effect of the orientation of the substituent upon the vicinal carbon3 carbon coupling. Third, the dependence of the J upon substituent orientation in norbornanes was empirically investigated by the synthesis of a series of lactones and cyclic ethers whose conformation was rigid and known. Fourth, a large number of norbornanes substituted with methyls in the 1, 3, and 7 position and a carbon-13 labeled substituent in the 2 position were synthesized and studied in order to obtain a variety of vicinal C-C couplings; all the NMR parameters for this series of compounds were determined while the carbon13 labeled substituent was varied from methyl to methylene to carbinol to aldehyde and to carboxylic acid.

The study consists of three major areas of research. First, the dihedral angle dependence of vicinal carbon-carbon coupling constants is determined for aliphatic and alicyclic carboxylic acids wherein the formal hybridization and substituents are held constant. Second, the magnitudes and relative signs of long-range carbon-carbon coupling constants in a. triple- 13 C-labeled system are determined and compared with carbon-proton and/or proton-proton coupling constants in geometrically similar compounds. Third, the effect of changes in hybridization on long-range carbon-carbon coupling constants is determined for the following three groups of molecules: olefins and saturated hydrocarbons, aliphatic carboxylic acids, and aromatic compounds. In all cases only closely related systems are compared in order to identify the effect of individual molecular parameters. Most importantly, the results indicate that carbon-carbon couplings do correlate in magnitude and sign with carbon-proton and proton-proton couplings in analogous molecular. frameworks. Thus, the coupling mechanisms are similar in all three types of coupling. In addition, the observed trends in long-range carbon-carbon couplings provide an unambiguous method for assigning carbon chemical shifts.