Dielectric relaxation in some chlorine substituted anilines

It has been shown recently that the very short group relaxation time observed for pure aniline and its solutions may be attributed to the inversion of the nonplanar configuration of the nitrogen bonds.^{1,2, 3} Tiganik,⁴ by measuring the static dielectric constants of ortho-, meta-, and para-chloroanilines, has come to the conclusion that the angle between the NHg group and the phenyl ring varies with the location of the substituted chlorine atom. One may expect that the relaxation time and the potential barrier to the inversion is dependent on the magnitude of the angle to be inverted. Further, the self association of anilines through weak hydrogen bonding is dependent on the substitution. In order to gain information on these phenomena the present study was undertaken.