Unusual electron charge density in carboxylic acid. 17O quadrupole coupling in cis-cyclobutane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid.

The (17)O NQR frequencies have been measured in cis-cyclobutane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid and the quadrupole coupling tensors have been determined at various temperatures. Two O···H oxygen positions and two O-H oxygen positions are observed, showing the presence of two different types of O-H···O hydrogen bonds in the unit cell. The quadrupole coupling constants at the O-H oxygen positions are approximately 30% lower than the lowest quadrupole coupling constants experimentally observed at the C-O-H positions in other carboxylic acids with either ordered or disordered hydrogen bonds. The O-H distances have been calculated from the (17)O-(1)H dipole-dipole interaction at the O-H oxygen positions. The obtained values are longer than the O-H distances usually found in O-H···O hydrogen bonds with comparable O···O distance, in agreement with the proposed proton exchange O-H···O ↔ O···H-O, which partially averages the dipole-dipole interaction. The energy difference of the two proton configurations, O-H···O and O···H-O, is calculated from the O-H distances determined by NQR. The temperature dependence of the (17)O quadrupole coupling tensors at the (17)O···H-O oxygen positions is analyzed in the model of proton exchange and the energy differences of the two proton configurations obtained by this analysis agree with the values obtained from the O-H distances. The quadrupole coupling tensors are analyzed in a model based on the Townes and Dailey model. The model shows that the population of an oxygen lone pair orbital is at this oxygen position reduced from 2 to approximately 1.3. The electron electric charge is most probably transferred to the oxygen σ and π electron orbitals. This may be associated with the structure of the cyclobutane ring, where the X-ray data show the presence of two unusually short C-C bonds.