Crystals of the complexes of 18-crown-6 with a number of ammonium salts (bromide, chloride, two forms of iodide, nitrate) and with amminetrifluoroboron have been prepared, analyzed with X-ray diffraction, and then investigated by infrared hole burning. The complexes all have similar hydrogen-bonding arrangements between the crown ether ring and the ammonium nitrogen. Hole burning of the infrared bands at low temperature identifies the N-D hydrogen bonds of the compounds that have been doped with a small amount of deuterium. The patterns of N-D bands from different complexes are often quite overlapped, with a few notable exceptions. The hole burning reveals a wide variety of phenomena, including monotonic decay and kinetic interchange among the holes and antiholes, a variety similar to that observed in previous hole-burning experiments.

The N-D stretching region in the infrared spectrum of the ammonia complex of tris-(2-methoxymethyl-phenol)-borane containing one D atom has been examined. The N-D bands have been hole burned, and the resulting spectra reveal the reorientation kinetics of the ammonia. The ammonia is hydrogen bonded with the bond distances and reorientation barrier typical of other compounds. The N-D stretching frequencies are higher than those of comparison compounds.