Phenol forms complexes with tetramethylammonium ions in aqueous solution?

Interactions between phenol and the tetramethylammonium (TETMA) ion were studied experimentally by measuring electrolyte conductivity and its dielectric constant and theoretically using the HF/6-31G(d) and B3LYP/6-31G(d) ab-initio levels of theory. In the latter study, the effect of aqueous environment was included by using the solvent reaction field method. The experiment and the theory give evidence for the existence of complexes between phenol and the TETMA ion in aqueous solution.