High-pressure delta-Al(OH)3 and delta-AlOOH phases and isostructural hydroxides/oxyhydroxides: new structural insights from high-resolution 1H and 27Al NMR.

In order to shed light on the proton distributions and order/disorder in high-pressure delta-Al(OH)3 and delta-AlOOH phases, two-dimensional, high-resolution 1H CRAMPS (FSLG)-MAS NMR and 27Al 3QMAS NMR spectra have been obtained. For delta-Al(OH)3, the 1H CRAMPS-MAS NMR revealed two peaks with an intensity ratio close to 2:1. The 27Al MAS and 3QMAS NMR suggest a single Al site with a well-defined local structure. For delta-AlOOH, the 1H and 27Al NMR indicate the presence of a single H and Al site each. These results are consistent with crystal structures refined from X-ray diffraction. For comparison, 1H MAS and CRAMPS-MAS NMR spectra were also obtained for several other hydroxides/oxyhydroxides, including In(OH)3 and InOOH that have similar structures to delta-Al(OH)3 and delta-AlOOH, respectively. These data not only provide additional insights into the proton distributions in these important crystal structure classes but also together provide a better defined quantitative correlation between 1H chemical shift and hydrogen-bonding O...O distance.