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Coupling constants

The tables below list coupling constants for a few general cases. For more specific cases see these lists of H-H coupling constants and C-H coupling constants.

H-H coupling

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
Aliphatic, H-C-H, geminal 2JHH -15 - -10
Aliphatic, H-C-C-H 3JHH 6-8
Aldehyde, H-C-CO-H 3JHH 2-3
Alkene, H-C-H, geminal 2JHH 0-3
Alkene, H-C=C-H, trans 3JHH 12-18
Alkene, H-C=C-H, cis 3JHH 6-12
Aromatic, H-C~C-H 3JHH 6-10
Aromatic, H-C~C~C-H 4JHH 1-3

C-H coupling

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
Aliphatic, C-H 1JCH 125-135
Aliphatic, CX-H (X=N,O,S) 1JCH 135-155
Alkene, =C-H 1JCH 155-170
Alkyne, ≡C-H 1JCH 240-250
Aromatic, ~C-H 1JCH 155-165

19F coupling

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
C-F 1JCF 160
C-C-F 2JCF 20-50
C-C-C-F 3JCF 5
H-C-F 2JHF 40-60
H-C-C-F 3JHF 2-15
H-C-C-C-F 4JHF 5

31P coupling

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
H-P 1JHP 180-200
H-C-P 2JHP 0.5
H-C-C-P 3JHP 14
H-P=O 1JHP 630
H-C-P=O 2JHP 12
H-C-C-P=O 3JHP 16
H-C-O-P=O (nucleic acid backbone) 3JHP 4-10

Peptide one bond

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
C-H 1JHC 140
C-C 1JCC 35
C-CO 1JCC 55
N-H 1JNH -92
N-Ca 1JNC -11
N-CO 1JNC -15

Peptide two bond

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
H-N-Ca 2JHC 2
H-N-CO 2JHC 4
Ha-Ca-N 2JHN 1
Ha-Ca-CO 2JHC -4
Ha-Ca-Cb 2JHC -6
Ca-N-CO 2JCC -0.7
Ca-CO-N 2JCN 7
Cb-Ca-N 2JCN -0.7
Cb-Ca-CO 2JCC 0.3
CO-Ca-N 2JCN -0.2

Peptide three bond

Environment Coupling Value (Hz)
H-N-Ca-Ha 3JHH 8
H-N-Ca-Cb 3JHC 1
H-N-Ca-CO 3JHC 1
Ha-Ca-N-CO 3JHC 3
CO-N-Ca-Cb 3JCC 1.7
CO-N-Ca-CO 3JCC 0.8

Written by Brendan Duggan. Last modified 2022-Jul-22