Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
The Partial Charge Model has been modified to take into account the detailed structure of any molecular sol-gel precursors or inorganic solid networks. Starting from these structure-dependent partial charges, the classical theory of nuclear shielding is applied to compute the electronic cloud compacity <r-3>p, the population unbalance Pu and also the mean excitation energy ΔE. With these three parameters it is possible to explain the chemical shifts variations, spanning from +40 down to -140 ppm, of more than 50 precursors. Depending on the ligands, the well-known upside-down U-curves for series SiXnY4-n (n=0‥4) can be ascribed either to the population unbalance term Pu or to a competition between the two other terms <r-3>p and ΔE.