Low-power broadband homonuclear dipolar recoupling in MAS NMR by two-fold symmetry pulse schemes for magnetization transfers and double-quantum excitation

Abstract

We provide an experimental, numerical, and high-order average Hamiltonian evaluation of an open-ended series of homonuclear dipolar recoupling sequences, SR22p1 with p=1,2,3,…. While operating at a very low radio-frequency (rf) power, corresponding to a nutation frequency of 1/2 of the magic-angle spinning (MAS) rate (ωnut=ωr/2), these recursively generated double-quantum (2Q) dipolar recoupling schemes offer a progressively improved compensation to resonance offsets and rf inhomogeneity for increasing pulse-sequence order p. The excellent recoupling robustness to these experimental obstacles, as well as to CSA, is demonstrated for 2Q filtering (2QF) experiments and for driving magnetization transfers in 2D NMR correlation spectroscopy, where the sequences may provide either double or zero quantum dipolar Hamiltonians during mixing. Experimental and numerical demonstrations, which mostly target conditions of “ultra-fast” MAS (≳50kHz) and high magnetic fields, are provided for recoupling of 13C across a wide range of isotropic and anisotropic chemical shifts, as well as dipolar coupling constants, encompassing [2,3-13C2]alanine, [1,3-13C2]alanine, diammonium [1,4-13C2]fumarate, and [U–13C]tyrosine. When compared at equal power levels, a superior performance is observed for the SR22p1 sequences with p⩾3 relative to existing and well-established 2Q recoupling techniques. At ultra-fast MAS, proton decoupling is redundant during the homonuclear dipolar recoupling of dilute spins in organic solids, which renders the family of SR22p1 schemes the first efficient 2Q recoupling option for general applications, such as 2Q–1Q correlation NMR and high-order multiple-quantum excitation, under truly low-power rf conditions.