Anesthesia and hydrogen bonding. A semi-quantitative infrared study at room temperature

It has been shown previously that certain anesthetics hinder the formation of hydrogen bonds of the [Formula: see text] types. An attempt bas now been made to correlate this hydrogen bond 'breaking' property with anesthetic potency. As a measure of the former, relative intensifies of infrared bands related to 'free' and hydrogen bonded species were used. The band which was chosen for this purpose is the OH or NH stretching + in-plane bending combination band. This made it possible to carry out the measurements at room temperature. A semi-quantitative relationship has been found. Its significance for the theories of anesthesia is discussed.