Lithium atom exchange in solid tert-butyllithium

Abstract

Lithium-7 NMR spectral lineshapes and T₁ measurements show that the lithium atoms in the solid tetrameric form of tert-butyllithium are rapidly exchanging between the apical sites of a tetrahedron with activation energies of 23.8 ± 0.2 and 23.0 ± 0.6 kJ mol⁻¹, above and below a phase transition (310 ± 3 K), respectively.