A novel technique for determining the relative accessibility and reactivity of basic surface hydroxyl sites by reacting various zirconium(IV) hydroxide materials with 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) and characterizing the resulting material using F-19 magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is presented here. Studied here are three zirconium hydroxide samples, two unperturbed commercial materials, and one commercial material that is crushed by a pellet press. Factors, such as the ratio of bridging/terminal hydroxyls, surface area, and pore size distribution, are examined and found to affect the ability of the zirconium(IV) hydroxide to react with TFE. X-ray diffraction, nitrogen isotherms, and H-1 MAS NMR were used to characterize the unperturbed materials, while therrnogravitric analysis with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry along with the F-19 MAS NMR were used to characterize the materials that were reacted with TFE. Zirconium hydroxide materials with a high surface area and a low bridging/terminal hydroxyl ratio were found to react TFE in the greatest amounts.