NbF5 and TaF5: Assignment of 19F NMR resonances and chemical bond analysis from GIPAW calculations

•The 19F δiso values of NbF5 and TaF5 have been determined.•The 19F chemical shielding tensors have been calculated using the GIPAW method.•A confident assignment of the 19F NMR lines of NbF5 and TaF5 is obtained.•The relationships between the 19Fδiso values and the M–F bonds features are established.

The 19F isotropic chemical shifts (δiso) of two isomorphic compounds, NbF5 and TaF5, which involve six nonequivalent fluorine sites, have been experimentally determined from the reconstruction of 1D 19F MAS NMR spectra. In parallel, the corresponding 19F chemical shielding tensors have been calculated using the GIPAW method for both experimental and DFT-optimized structures. Furthermore, the [M4F20] units of NbF5 and TaF5 being held together by van der Waals interactions, the relevance of Grimme corrections to the DFT optimization processes has been evaluated. However, the semi-empirical dispersion correction term introduced by such a method does not show any significant improvement. Nonetheless, a complete and convincing assignment of the 19F NMR lines of NbF5 and TaF5 is obtained, ensured by the linearity between experimental 19F δiso values and calculated 19F isotropic chemical shielding σiso values. The effects of the geometry optimizations have been carefully analyzed, confirming among other matters, the inaccuracy of the experimental structure of NbF5. The relationships between the fluorine chemical shifts, the nature of the fluorine atoms (bridging or terminal), the position of the terminal ones (opposite or perpendicular to the bridging ones), the fluorine charges, the ionicity and the length of the M–F bonds have been established. Additionally, for three of the 19F NMR lines of NbF5, distorted multiplets, arising from 1J-coupling and residual dipolar coupling between the 19F and 93Nb nuclei, were simulated yielding to values of 93Nb–19F 1J-coupling for the corresponding fluorine sites.

Graphical abstractThe complete assignment of the 19F NMR lines of NbF5 and TaF5 allow establishing relationships between the 19F δiso values, the nature of the fluorine atoms (bridging or terminal), the position of the terminal ones (opposite or perpendicular to the bridging ones), the fluorine charges, the ionicity and the length of the M–F bonds.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide