Thirty N-(p-substituted phenyl)-p-substituted benzenesulphonamides of the general formula, p-X’C6H4SO2NH(p-XC6H4), where X’ or X = H, CH3, C2H5, F, Cl or Br, are synthesised and their infrared spectra in the solid state and 1H and 13C NMR spectra in solution are measured. The N-H stretching vibrational frequencies, νN−H vary in the range 3334 - 3219 cm−1, while the asymmetric and symmetric SO2 vibrations appear in the ranges 1377 - 1311 cm−1 and 1182 - 1151 cm−1, respectively. The compounds exhibit S-N and C-N stretching vibrational absorptions in the ranges 937 - 898 cm−1 and 1310 - 1180 cm−1, respectively. There are no particular trends in the variation of these frequencies on substitution with either electron withdrawing or electron donating groups. The 1H and 13C chemical shifts of N-(p-substituted phenyl)-p-substituted benzenesulphonamides,are assigned to various protons and carbons of the two benzene rings. Further, incremental shifts of the ring protons and carbons due to -SO2NH(p-XC6H4) groups in the compounds of the formula, C6H5SO2NH(p-XC6H4), and p-X’C6H4SO2- and p-X’C6H4SO2NH- groups in the compounds of the formula, p-X’C6H4SO2NH(C6H5) are computed and used to calculate the 1H and 13C chemical shifts of the parallely substituted compounds of the general formula p-X’C6H4SO2NH(p-XC6H4). The computed values agree well with the observed chemical shifts. The above incremental shifts are found to correlate with the Hammett substituent parameters.
