Identification of halogen substituents in natural products by measurement of ¹³c spin-lattice relaxation times and integrated intensities

A method is proposed for differentiating brominated carbons from chlorinated carbons by means of natural-abundance ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The basis of the method is that the spin-lattice relaxation behaviour of brominated carbons is influenced by carbon-bromine scalar interactions, which can lead to shortened ¹³C spin-lattice relaxation times and reduced values of the nuclear Overhauser enhancement. C-Cl scalar interactions make a negligible contribution to the spin-lattice relaxation of chlorinated carbons. These effects are illustrated by measurement of the ¹³C spin-lattice relaxation times and integrated intensities of chloro-, bromo and iodobenzene and chloro-, bromo- and iodocyclohexane. The method is then tested on four polyhalogenated marine natural products. The results indicate that ¹³C relaxation measurements can be used to distinguish brominated carbons from chlorinated carbons in the case of halogenated quaternary carbons, sp² hydridized methine carbons and some sp³ hydridized methine carbons, but not in the case of halogenated methylene carbons or gem-dihalo substituted methine carbons.