Determination of Water Content in THF Based on Chemical Shift Differences in Solution NMR

In this study, H NMR chemical shift differences were used as a probe for water content in organic solvents. Changes in chemical shift differences reflecting the competition for hydrogen bondings between fluoride ions and water were linearly proportional to water content within certain ranges. Comparison between the results obtained using the developed sensor and Karl Fischer showed that this method could be useful to understand water sensing mechanisms of dye and that the probes were sensitive to water content in organic solvents. NMR spectroscopy is one of the most powerful and versatile analytical techniques for the analysis of molecular structures and properties. Chemical shifts can be regarded as the most important information that can be obtained from NMR in regard to molecular structures. Changes in chemical and/or physical environments affecting electronic distributions result in alterations in the chemical shifts of the nuclei involved