Oxygen‐17 Hyperfine Structure in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance

The hyperfine structure for O17 and N14 splittings in an organic radical, which is a model for nitric oxide, were compared. The relatively stable and simple organic free radical di-sec-butyl nitric oxide was enriched to 3.94% O17, and the O17 hyperfine structure observed in solution electron paramagnetic resonance. The O17 isotropic hfs in nitric oxide was calculated. It is given by the same mechanism involved in the nitrogen hfs; predominantly from cross terms, in the configuration interaction wave function, between the ground state (2 pi ) and various excited states having one (2 pi ) and two ( delta ) unpaired electrons. Agreement between the calculated splitting for O17 and that observed in the model compound was quite good.