Analytical Instrument Documents

Diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) constructs multidimensional spectra displaying signal strength as a function of Larmor frequency and of diffusion coefficient from experimental measurements using pulsed field gradient spin or stimulated echoes. Peak positions in the diffusion domain are determined by diffusion coefficients estimated by fitting experimental data to some variant of the Stejskal–Tanner equation, with the peak widths determined by the standard error estimated in the fitting process. The accuracy and reliability of the diffusion domain in DOSY spectra are therefore determined by the uncertainties in the experimental data and thus in part by the signal-to-noise ratio of the experimental spectra measured. Here the Cramér–Rao lower bound, Monte Carlo methods, and experimental data are used to investigate the relationship between signal-to-noise ratio, experimental parameters, and diffusion domain accuracy in 2D DOSY experiments. Experimental results confirm that sources of error other than noise put an upper limit on the improvement in diffusion domain accuracy obtainable by time averaging.

The conversion of CO2 into functional materials under ambient conditions is a major challenge to realize a carbon-neutral society. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been extensively studied as designable porous materials. Despite the fact that CO2 is an attractive renewable resource, the synthesis of MOFs from CO2 remains unexplored. Chemical inertness of CO2 has hampered its conversion into typical MOF linkers such as carboxylates without high energy reactants and/or harsh conditions. Here, we present a one-pot conversion of CO2 into highly porous crystalline MOFs at ambient temperature and pressure. Cubic [Zn4O(piperazine dicarbamate)3] is synthesized via in situ formation of bridging dicarbamate linkers from piperazines and CO2 and shows high surface areas (∼2366 m2 g–1) and CO2 contents (>30 wt %). Whereas the dicarbamate linkers are thermodynamically unstable by themselves and readily release CO2, the formation of an extended coordination network in the MOF lattices stabilizes the linker enough to demonstrate stable permanent porosity.

Structural analysis by NMR can provide not only a planar molecular structure but also three-dimensional structural information. In this Note, we describe a method for obtaining information on dihedral angles by using 1H-1H coupling constants (JHH values). For example, hydrogen atoms attached to a cyclohexane ring are either located in axial or equatorial positions in respect to the cyclohexane ring (Fig. 1). The dihedral angles between vicinal protons are known to be ∠Hax-C-C-Hax ≈ 180°, ∠Hax-C-Heq ≈ 60°, and ∠Heq-C-C-Heq ≈ 60°. If we look at the Karplus curve shown in Fig. 2, we can see that 3JHH of around 4 Hz can be expected in the case of the dihedral angle of 60°, while 3JHH of around 13 Hz corresponds to the dihedral angle of 180°. In reality, 3JHH values depend on substituents attached to the cyclohexane ring in substituted cyclohexanes, so the analysis is not straightforward, but the basic trend of having a larger J-value for a 180° dihedral angle compared to a 60° dihedral angle remains unchanged. Therefore, from the value of 3JHH of the methylene protons, it is possible to differentiate between the dihedral angle of 60° or 180°.

The new generation diffusion probe is specially designed for diffusion applications that requires a large magnetic field gradient. By improving the design around the coil, the recovery time after field gradient pulse has been significantly shortened compared to the conventional model. Using a newly developed 50A bipolar magnetic field gradient power supply, a magnetic field gradient of 20 T/m (2000 G/cm) can be applied, making it possible to measure diffusion coefficients on the order of 10-14 m2/s. This system is ideal for measuring the diffusion of ions in solid electrolytes.

Modification of the recently reported 19F-detected 1,1-ADEQUATE experiment that incorporates dual-optimization to selectively invert a wide range of 1JCC correlations in a 1,n-ADEQUATE experiment is reported. Parameters for the dual-optimization segment of the pulse sequence were modified to accommodate the increased size of 1JCC homonuclear coupling constants of poly- and perfluorinated molecules relative to protonated molecules to allow broadband inversion of the 1JCC correlations. The observation and utility of isotope shifts are reported for the first time for 1,1- and 1,n-ADEQUATE correlations.

Solid-state NMR is a useful tool to elucidate protein structures. Although fully 13C and 15N labelled samples are required, solid-state NMR provides complementary or unique information that is not accessible by other typical methods. For example, there are, in principle, no upper or lower limits to molecular weight in solid-state NMR, unlike solution NMR and cryo EM. In addition, solid-state NMR is a very sensitive probe of local dynamics. One of the stumbling block of solid-state NMR is sample amount. Indeed, 20 – 50 mg of fully labelled (expensive!) samples are required for 3.2 mm / 4 mm MAS rotors. However, the recent developments allowing MAS rates above 70 kHz change the situation completely. [1] Indeed, the 0.75 mm (1 mm) MAS rotors used for fast MAS experiments (up to 120 (80) kHz) only require 290 (800) nL of sample, enabling solid-state NMR measurements on sub-milligram amounts of sample. Another great advantage of fast MAS is the averaging out of most of the anisotropic interactions, allowing the use of low power schemes (decoupling, recoupling, cross-polarization etc.), which in turns avoids sample heating. High resolution 1H spectra become readily available in these conditions, especially for microcrystalline proteins. This is the biggest advantage of fast MAS, since 1H detection dramatically improves sensitivity compared to traditional 13C detection. As a consequence, fast MAS solid-state NMR is now a versatile tool to study the structure and dynamics of biomolecules, for which the first step is sequence-specific resonance assignment. To this end, requisite experiments for sequential backbone and sidechain assignments are well established. [2] Here, we introduce the tool box available for the Delta software together with examples on fully protonated Het-s (226-280) protein.

A method for the synthesis of metal-doped aromatic macrocycles has been developed. The method, i.e., metal-templated oligomeric macrocyclization via coupling, adopts Ni as the template and assembles five pyridine units via a Ni-mediated coupling reaction to form aryl–aryl linkages. A pentameric oligopyridyl macrocycle was selectively obtained in good yield, and the reaction was also applicable to a gram-scale synthesis. The pentameric oligopyridyl macrocycle captured d8-Ni(II) at the center to form a paramagnetic pentagonal-bipyramidal complex. The method was applied to the synthesis of a large π-molecule to afford a nanometer-sized, bowl-shaped molecule having a unique combination of 120π and 8d electrons.

Axial chirality was induced by circularly polarized light to covalent organic frameworks as well as hyperbranched polymers composed of bezene-1,3,5-triyl core units and oligo(benzene-1,4-diyl) as linker units where variation in induction efficiency was rationally interpreted in terms of internal rotation dynamics studied through CPMAS 13C NMR experiments including CODEX measurements.

Three-dimensional electron diffraction crystallography (microED) can solve structures of sub-micrometer crystals, which are too small for single crystal X-ray crystallography. However, R factors for the microED-based structures are generally high because of dynamic scattering. That means R factor may not be reliable provided that kinetic analysis is used. Consequently, there remains ambiguity to locate hydrogens and to assign nuclei with close atomic numbers, like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Herein, we employed microED and ssNMR dipolar-based experiments together with spin dynamics numerical simulations. The NMR dipolar-based experiments were 1H-14N phase-modulated rotational-echo saturation-pulse double-resonance (PM-S-RESPDOR) and 1H-1H selective recoupling of proton (SERP) experiments. The former examined the dephasing effect of a specific 1H resonance under multiple 1H-14N dipolar couplings. The latter examined the selective polarization transfer between a 1H-1H pair. The structure was solved by microED and then validated by evaluating the agreement between experimental and calculated dipolar-based NMR results. As the measurements were performed on 1H and 14N, the method can be employed for natural abundance samples. Furthermore, the whole validation procedure was conducted at 293 K unlike widely used chemical shift calculation at 0 K using the GIPAW method. This combined method was demonstrated on monoclinic l-histidine.

Orientationally-dependent interactions such as dipolar coupling, quadrupolar coupling, and chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) contain a wealth of spatial information that can be used to elucidate molecular conformations and dynamics. To determine the sign of the chemical shift tensor anisotropy parameter (δaniso), both the |m| ​= ​1 and |m| ​= ​2 components of the CSA need to be symmetry allowed, while the recoupling of the |m| ​= ​1 term is accompanied with the reintroduction of homonuclear dipolar coupling components. Therefore, previously suggested sequences which solely recouple the |m| ​= ​2 term cannot determine the sign a 1H's δaniso in a densely-coupled network. In this study, we demonstrate the CSA recoupling of strongly dipolar coupled 1H spins using the Cnn/1(9003601805400360180900) sequence. This pulse scheme recouples both the |m| ​= ​1 and |m| ​= ​2 CSA terms but the scaling factors for the homonuclear dipolar coupling terms are zeroed. Consequently, the sequence is sensitive to the sign of δaniso but is not influenced by homonuclear dipolar interactions.