Composite-180° pulse-based symmetry sequences to recouple proton chemical shift anisotropy tensors under ultrafast MAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy

Abstract

There is considerable interest in the measurement of proton (1H) chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors to obtain deeper insights into H-bonding interactions which find numerous applications in chemical and biological systems. However, the presence of strong 1H/1H dipolar interaction makes it difficult to determine small size 1H CSAs from the homogeneously broadened NMR spectra. Previously reported pulse sequences for 1H CSA recoupling are prone to the effects of radio frequency field (B1) inhomogeneity. In the present work we have carried out a systematic study using both numerical and experimental approaches to evaluate γ-encoded radio frequency (RF) pulse sequences based on R-symmetries that recouple 1H CSA in the indirect dimension of a 2D 1H/1H anisotropic/isotropic chemical shift correlation experiment under ultrafast magic angle spinning (MAS) frequencies. The spectral resolution and sensitivity can be significantly improved in both frequency dimensions of the 2D 1H/1H correlation spectrum without decoupling 1H/1H dipolar couplings but by using ultrafast MAS rates up to 70kHz. We successfully demonstrate that with a reasonable RF field requirement (<200kHz) a set of symmetry-based recoupling sequences, with a series of phase-alternating 270°0–90°180 composite-180° pulses, are more robust in combating B1 inhomogeneity effects. In addition, our results show that the new pulse sequences render remarkable 1H CSA recoupling efficiency and undistorted CSA lineshapes. Experimental results on citric acid and malonic acid comparing the efficiencies of these newly developed pulse sequences with that of previously reported CSA recoupling pulse sequences are also reported under ultrafast MAS conditions.