Proton and 19F NMR Spectroscopy of Pesticide Intermolecular Interactions

Sorption of organic pollutants by soils and sediments is one of the main chemical processes that controls pollutant migration in the environment. Information about the molecular mechanisms by which an organic pollutant interacts with other solution-phase constituents and with solid-phase sorbents would be invaluable for more accurate prediction of pollutant fate and transport and for optimal design and application of remediation procedures. Many current models and remediation strategies are based upon the “partition theory” of organic compound sorption, which predicts sorption coefficients from properties such as water solubility or octanol-water partition coefficients. Partition theory is well suited for nonpolar hydrocarbons but may not be appropriate for pesticides with electrophilic or weakly acidic or basic substituents, which may interact with soils or organic matter through specific interactions such as hydrogen bonding or charge-transfer complexes. If a pesticide can form hydrogen bonds or a charge-transfer complex with a sorbent, sorption may be greater than in the absence of specific interactions. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is well suited for the study of pesticide-solution or pesticide-sorbent interactions because NMR is an element-specific method that is extremely sensitive to the electron density (shielding) near the nucleus of interest. Consequently, solution-state NMR can distinguish between closely related functional groups and can provide information about intermolecular interactions. All nuclei with nonzero nuclear spin quantum number can be studied by NMR spectroscopy. Of the more than 100 NMR-active nuclei, 1H and 19F are the easiest to study because both have natural abundances near 100% and greater NMR sensitivity than any other nuclei. In addition, both 1H and 19F have zero quadrupolar moments, which means that sharp, well resolved NMR peaks can be obtained, at least in homogeneous solutions. Proton NMR is well suited for elucidating molecular interactions in solution but cannot be used to study interactions between pesticides and heterogeneous sorbents such as soils, humic acid, or even cell extracts, since protons in the sorbent generally produce broad peaks that mask the NMR peaks from the solute or sorbate of interest. In contrast, 19F NMR can be used to study interactions between fluorine-containing molecules and heterogeneous sorbents because the fluorine concentration in most natural sorbents is negligible.