Nuclear magnetic resonance study of complexes formed between conjugated Schiff bases and carboxylic acids
The NMR spectra of the proton located in a N+---H---−O bond formed in the reaction of a conjugated Schiff base (SB) with a carboxylic acid (HA) in a non-polar solvent indicate that this proton is rapidly exchanging with other protons present in the system. For this study, two SB were used: all-trans-retinylidene tert-butylamine (RBA) and trans, tran-2,4-heptadienylidene tert-butylamine (HBA), and five carboxylic acids having pKa's between 0.66 and 4.87.1H NMR spectra were taken at 293 and 233 K in CDCl3 of systems of SB:HA using different ratios of acid to SB. Results indicate that the rapid proton exchanges are temperature and concentration dependent. Finally, the results are related to the natural pigments rhodopsin and bacteriorhodopsin.