The evaluation of different MAS techniques at low spinning rates in aqueous samples and in the presence of magnetic susceptibility gradients

Abstract

It was recently demonstrated that the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) linewidths for stationary biological samples are dictated mainly by magnetic susceptibility gradients, and that phase-altered spinning sideband (PASS) and phase-corrected magic angle turning (PHORMAT) solid-state NMR techniques employing slow and ultra-slow magic angle spinning (MAS) frequencies can be used to overcome the static susceptibility broadening to yield high-resolution, spinning sideband (SSB)-free 1H NMR spectra [Magn. Reson. Med. 46 (2001) 213; 47 (2002) 829]. An additional concern is that molecular diffusion in the presence of the susceptibility gradients may limit the minimum useful MAS frequency by broadening the lines and reducing SSB suppression at low spinning frequencies. In this article the performance of PASS, PHORMAT, total sideband suppression (TOSS), and standard MAS techniques were evaluated as a function of spinning frequency. To this end, 300 MHz (7.05 T) 1H NMR spectra were acquired via PASS, TOSS, PHORMAT, and standard MAS NMR techniques for a 230-μm-diameter spherical glass bead pack saturated with water. The resulting strong magnetic susceptibility gradients result in a static linewidth of about 3.7 kHz that is larger than observed for a natural biological sample, constituting a worst-case scenario for examination of susceptibility broadening effects. Results: (I) TOSS produces a distorted centerband and fails in suppressing the SSBs at a spinning rate below ∼1 kHz. (II) Standard MAS requires spinning speeds above a few hundred Hz to separate the centerband from the SSBs. (III) PASS produces nearly SSB-free spectra at spinning speeds as low as 30 Hz, and is only limited by T 2-induced signal losses. (IV) With PHORMAT, a SSB-free isotropic projection is obtained at any spinning rate, even at an ultra-slow spinning rate as slow as 1 Hz. (V) It is found empirically that the width of the isotropic peak is proportional to F − x , where F is the spinning frequency, and x=2 for MAS, 0.84 for PASS, and 0.5 for PHORMAT.