Anesthesia and hydrogen bonding. A semi-quantitative infrared study at room temperature

Abstract

Certain anesthetics hinder the formation of H bonds of the O.sbd.H.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.O, N.sbd.H.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.N, N.sbd.H.cntdot..cntdot..cntdot.O .dbd. .**GRAPHIC**. An attempt was now made to correlate this H bond breaking property with anesthetic potency. As a measure of the former, relative intensities of IR bands related to free and H bonded species were used. The band which was chosen for this purpose is the OH or NH stretching + in-plane bending combination band. This made it possible to carry out the measurements at room temperature. A semi-quantitative relationship has been found. Its significance for the theories of anesthesia is discussed.