Triethylammonium halides, Et3NHX (X = Cl, Br, I): simple structure, complex spectrum

A crystal structure determination has shown that the ethyl groups in the three isostructural (P63mc, Z = 2) triethylammonium halides, Et3NHX (X = Cl, Br, I), at room temperature are orientationally disordered and the [Formula: see text] groups are linear by symmetry. The unusual extent and complexity of the NH and ND stretching absorptions in the ir spectra of all three compounds between 10 and 293 K are discussed in terms of Fermi resonance interactions. The centroid ν(NH) and ν(ND) frequencies extracted from the spectra correlate with the [Formula: see text] distances. It is shown that if Fermi resonance is the sole cause of the complexity of the stretching absorptions, then these centroids represent the ν(NH) and ν(ND) frequencies unperturbed by Fermi resonance. The centroid frequencies in the three halides are unusually low, pointing to strong [Formula: see text] hydrogen bonding.