MOLECULAR-MOTION OF THE MORPHOLIN-1-YL RADICAL IN CF2CLCFCL2 AS STUDIED BY ESR - USE OF RESIDUAL ANISOTROPY OF POWDER SPECTRA TO EXTRACT DYNAMICS

The dynamics of the deprotonated neutral morpholin-1-yl radical, trapped in a halocarbon matrix, CF2ClCFCl2, has been studied utilizing electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. The experimental lineshapes of the radical exhibit an alterating line-width effect in the temperature range 105-144 K. The major changes of the ESR lineshape were governed by the averaging of the nitrogen hyperfine anisotropy while no exchange of the isotropic hyperfine coupling constants was observed. Geometrical parameters specifying the restricted anisotropic rotation of the whole radical trapped in the matrix could be extracted. Two methods for simulating anisotropic exchange broadened ESR spectra, the secular and non-perturbative, were utilized to investigate the dynamics of the radical. A surprisingly simple ''three-site'' jump model with a barrier of almost-equal-to 3.6 kcal/mol can be applied in the simulation of the experimental spectra. It has been shown that the secular method cannot reproduce the exchange broadened ESR spectra of systems with large hyperfine anisotropy undergoing large internal reorganisation.