First of all, this is a very good idea, and in fact reactions are often
studied while in progress by NMR and other instrumental methods. I
realize you meant to be discussing IR, but NMR is perhaps even more useful
in studying the progress of reactions.
Transition states are very difficult (but not impossible) to study due to
their fleeting lifetimes, however other relatively stable reaction
intermediates can be observed by spectroscopic methods during the process
of converting reactants to products.
Anyway, you've hit upon one of the "high end" uses of spectroscopy.
CBF
On 5 Dec 1996, Mainard Family wrote:
> Hi ~
>
> Since NMR takes a few seconds to accomplish signal averaging to produce the
> output, I am curious if a reacting sample can be run to look at transition state
> dynamics? There would be a combination of reactants, transition state and
> product in the sample possibly creating confounding results but with computer
> technology it seems a filter program of some sort could be used to remove the
> "knowns" attributed to the reactants and product. Does anyone have any ideas
> on this?
>
> Thanks,
> Kelly Mainard
>
>
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