Chemical Shift Tensor Components Research Articles

NMR Crystallography Enhanced by Quantum Chemical Calculations and Liquid State NMR Spectroscopy for the Investigation of Se-NHC Adducts*.

N-heterocyclic carbene ligands (NHC) are widely utilized in catalysis and material science. They are characterized by their steric and electronic properties. Steric properties are usually quantified on the basis of their static structure, which can be determined by X-ray diffraction. The electronic properties are estimated in the liquid state; for example, via the 77 Se liquid state NMR of Se-NHC adducts. We demonstrate that 77 Se NMR crystallography can contribute to the characterization of the structural and electronic properties of NHC in solid and liquid states. Selected Se-NHC adducts are investigated via 77 Se solid state NMR and X-ray crystallography, supported by quantum chemical calculations. This investigation reveals a correlation between the molecular structure of adducts and NMR parameters, including not only isotropic chemical shifts but also the other chemical shift tensor components. Afterwards, the liquid state 77 Se NMR data is presented and interpreted in terms of the quantum chemistry modelling. The discrepancy between the structural and electronic properties, and in particular the π-accepting abilities of adducts in the solid and liquid states is discussed. Finally, the 13 C isotropic chemical shift from the liquid state NMR and the 13 C tensor components are also discussed, and compared with their 77 Se counterparts. 77 Se NMR crystallography can deliver valuable information about NHC ligands, and together with liquid state 77 Se NMR can provide an in-depth outlook on the properties of NHC ligands.

Chemical Shift and Second‐Order Quadrupolar Effects in the Solid‐State 133Cs NMR Spectra of [Cs+(Cryptand[2.2.2])]X (X = I−, SCN−·H2O)

[Cs+(Cryptand[2.2.2])]I− (1; Cryptand[2.2.2] = C222) was characterized via single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction and was shown to crystallize in the monoclinic space group I2/c system with a = 8.9605 (2), b = 23.5073 (5), c = 11.7563 (3) Å, and β = 93.792 (2)°. Stationary and magic angle spinning (MAS) experiments under different magnetic fields allowed for the separation of the chemical shift and quadrupole coupling tensor parameters. Remarkably, MAS spectra showing pure second‐order quadrupole powder patterns at 4.23 T were observed for 133Cs nuclei with small quadrupole moments owing to the large electric field gradients (EFGs) caused by short CsO and CsN bond distances in the [Cs+(C222)] ions. Stationary NMR powder patterns with a combination of the chemical shifts and second‐order quadrupolar interactions were observed. The EFG and chemical shift tensor components calculated using the atomic coordinate files and Gaussian 09 were reasonably consistent with the experimental values.

Chemical Shift Tensors of Cimetidine Form A Modeled with Density Functional Theory Calculations: Implications for NMR Crystallography.

The principal components of the 13C chemical shift tensors for the ten crystallographically distinct carbon atoms of the active pharmaceutical ingredient cimetidine Form A have been measured using the FIREMAT technique. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of 13C and 15N magnetic shielding tensors are used to assign the 13C and 15N peaks. DFT calculations were performed on cimetidine and a training set of organic crystals using both plane-wave and cluster-based approaches. The former set of calculations allowed several structural refinement strategies to be employed, including calculations utilizing a dispersion-corrected force field that was parametrized using 13C and 15N magnetic shielding tensors. The latter set of calculations featured the use of resource-intensive hybrid-DFT methods for the calculation of magnetic shielding tensors. Calculations on structures refined using the new force-field correction result in improved values of 15N magnetic shielding tensors (as gauged by agreement with experimental chemical shift tensors), although little improvement is seen in the prediction of 13C shielding tensors. Calculations of 13C and 15N magnetic shielding tensors using hybrid functionals show better agreement with experimental values in comparison to those using GGA functionals, independent of the method of structural refinement; the shielding of carbon atoms bonded to nitrogen are especially improved using hybrid DFT methods.

13 C chemical shift tensors in MOF α-Mg3 (HCOO)6 : Which component is more sensitive to host-guest interaction?

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of important porous materials with many current and potential applications. Their applications almost always involve the interaction between host framework and guest species. Therefore, understanding of host-guest interaction in MOF systems is fundamentally important. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is an excellent technique for investigating host-guest interaction as it provides information complementary to that obtained from X-ray diffraction. In this work, using MOF α-Mg3 (HCOO)6 as an example, we demonstrated that 13 C chemical shift tensor of organic linker can be utilized to probe the host-guest interaction in MOFs. Obtaining 13 C chemical shift tensor components (δ11 , δ22 , and δ33 , where δ11 ≥ δ22 ≥ δ33 ) in this MOF is particularly challenging as there are six coordinatively equivalent but crystallographically non-equivalent carbons in the unit cell with very similar local coordination environment. Two-dimensional magic-angle-turning experiments were employed to measure the 13 C chemical shift tensors of each individual crystallographically non-equivalent carbon in three microporous α-Mg3 (HCOO)6 samples with different guest species. The results indicate that the δ22 component (with its direction approximately being co-planar with the formate anion and perpendicular to the C-H bond) is more sensitive to the adsorbate molecules inside the MOF channel due to the weak C-H···O hydrogen bonding or the ring current effect of benzene. The 13 C isotropic chemical shift, on the other hand, seems much less sensitive to the subtle changes in the local environment around formate linker induced by adsorption. The approach described in this study may be used in future studies on host-guest interaction within MOFs.

Single-Crystal NMR Characterization of Halogen Bonds.

Oxygen-17-enriched triphenylphosphine oxide and three of its halogen-bonded cocrystals featuring 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene and 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene as halogen bond donors have been characterized by 31P and 17O single-crystal NMR spectroscopy. Single-crystal NMR allows for the measurement of not only the magnitudes of various NMR interaction tensors, but also their orientations relative to the crystal lattice and therefore relative to the halogen bonds themselves. 31P chemical shift tensors, 17O chemical shift tensors, 17O quadrupolar coupling tensors, and 31P-17O indirect nuclear spin-spin (J) coupling tensors are reported here for P═O···I halogen bonds. The angular deviations in the directions of the pseudo-unique components of the 31P chemical shift tensors, the 17O chemical shift tensors, and the 17O quadrupolar coupling tensors from the direction of the oxygen-iodine halogen bond correlate with the deviations in linearity of the P═O···I halogen bond. There is also a clear decrease in anisotropy and an increase in asymmetry of the J(31P,17O) coupling tensors attributable to the formation of iodine-oxygen halogen bonds. The small but quantifiable changes in the tensors are consistent with the weak nature of these halogen bonds relative to the P═O motif. Overall, this work establishes single-crystal NMR as a novel probe of halogen bonds in solids. Analysis of the results has provided insights into the correlations between the magnitude and orientation of various NMR interaction tensors and the local geometry of the halogen bond. Gauge-including projector-augmented wave computations corroborate the experimental findings.

Structure of P2O5–SiO2 Pure Network Former Glasses Studied by Solid State NMR Spectroscopy

The structure of binary (SiO2)100-x–(P2O5)x glasses has been investigated by Raman scattering, 29Si and 31P magic angle spinning (MAS) as well as static 31P NMR spectroscopy. 29Si chemical shift trends reflect the successive replacement of Si–O–Si by Si–O–P linkages as the compositional parameter x is increased. While 31P MAS NMR does not resolve separate phosphate species, the static 31P NMR lineshapes were successfully simulated by considering the effect of uncorrelated distribution functions of the chemical shift tensor components upon the line shape. On the basis of these simulations, which were also found to be consistent with the experimental 31P MAS NMR spectra, two distinct sites can be resolved: a dominant site characterized by an axially symmetric chemical shift tensor, assigned to P(3) units, and (only in the case of the x = 25 and 30 glasses) a Gaussian component reflecting phosphate species interacting with five- and six-coordinated silicon species. For 0 ≤ x < 25, the decrease in average coo...

Synthesis, Structure, and Local Molecular Dynamics for Crystalline Rotors Based on Hecogenin/Botogenin Steroidal Frameworks

The synthesis and solid-state characterization of a series of cyclic/acyclic molecular rotors derived from naturally occurring steroidal 12-oxosapogenins are described. The bridged molecular rotors with rigid steroidal frameworks were obtained by employing ring-closing metathesis (RCM) as a key step. The X-ray diffraction technique was employed for determination and refinement of the crystal and molecular structure of selected models giving good quality single crystals. In the case of the bridged hecogenin molecular rotor 11E for which poor quality crystals were obtained, an NMR crystallography approach was used for fine refinement of the structure. Solid state NMR spectroscopic techniques were applied for the study of local molecular dynamics of the featured acyclic/cyclic molecular rotors. Analysis of 13C principal components of chemical shift tensors and chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) as well as heteronuclear 1H–13C dipolar couplings (DC) unambiguously proved that aromatic rings located in the space within the rigid steroidal framework both for cyclic and acyclic rotors are under kHz exchange regime. Experimental results were confirmed by theoretical calculations of rotation barrier on the density functional theory level. Small distinctions in the values of CSA and DC for the rotors under investigation are explained on the basis of differences in their molecular structures.

A solid-state17O NMR study of platinum-carboxylate complexes: carboplatin and oxaliplatin

We report synthesis and solid-state NMR characterization of two17O-labeled platinum anticancer drugs: cis-diammine(1,1-cyclobutane-[17O4]dicarboxylato)platinum(II) (carboplatin) and ([17O4]oxalato)[(1R, 2R)-(−)-1,2-cyclohexanediamine)]platinum(II) (oxaliplatin). Both17O chemical shift (CS) and quadrupolar coupling (QC) tensors were measured for the carboxylate groups in these two compounds. With the aid of plane wave DFT computations, the17O CS and QC tensor orientations were determined in the molecular frame of reference. Significant changes in the17O CS and QC tensors were observed for the carboxylate oxygen atom upon its coordination to Pt(II). In particular, the17O isotropic chemical shifts for the oxygen atoms directly bonded to Pt(II) are found to be smaller (more shielded) by 200 ppm than those for the non-Pt-coordinated oxygen atoms within the same carboxylate group. Examination of the17O CS tensor components reveals that such a large17O coordination shift is primarily due to the shielding increase along the direction that is within the O=C–O–Pt plane and perpendicular to the O–Pt bond. This result is interpreted as due to the σ donation from the oxygen nonbonding orbital (electron lone pair) to the Pt(II) empty dyzorbital, which results in large energy gaps between σ(Pt–O) and unoccupied molecular orbitals, thus reducing the paramagnetic shielding contribution along the direction perpendicular to the O–Pt bond. We found that the17O QC tensor of the carboxylate oxygen is also sensitive to Pt(II) coordination, and that17O CS and QC tensors provide complementary information about the O–Pt bonding.

Effect of Noncovalent Interactions on the 31P Chemical Shift Tensor of Phosphine Oxides, Phosphinic, Phosphonic, and Phosphoric Acids, and Their Complexes with Lead(II)

The effect of noncovalent interactions such as C–H···O and O–H···O hydrogen bonds and coordination to Pb2+ on the 31P NMR chemical shift tensor in the titled compounds has been studied experimentally and simulated theoretically using the density functional theory gauge-invariant atomic orbital (DFT-GIAO) approach. It has been shown that only in few cases the most suitable measure of these interactions is the isotropic 31P NMR chemical shift. In contrast, the analysis of the anisotropy and the principal components of the 31P NMR chemical shift tensor can be very useful to discriminate between different interactions and to characterize their properties. A great advantage is that these NMR parameters can be correctly simulated at relatively inexpensive levels of theory, namely, B3LYP/cc-pVDZ and B3LYP/6-311G**. Thus, a combination of 31P NMR and time-efficient calculations can be used to study the structural pattern in polycrystalline and noncrystalline materials. An illustrative result is the demonstration of the similarity of the unknown crystal structures of methylphosphonic acid, diphenyl hydrogen phosphate, and lead(II) methylphosphinate to the known crystal structures of tert-butylphosphonic acid, bis(4-chlorophenyl) hydrogen phosphate, and lead(II) vinylphosphonate, respectively. The scope of this approach is wide and covers the study of the local chemical structures in amorphous materials, at surfaces and interfaces.

Interpretation of Crystal Effects on NMR Chemical Shift Tensors: Electron and Shielding Deformation Densities

The relationship between the NMR observables and the supramolecular structure of any system is not straightforward. In this work we examine the influence of the crystal packing for three purine derivatives (hypoxanthine, theobromine, and 6-(2-methoxy)benzylaminopurine) on the principal components of the NMR chemical shift tensors (CSTs). We employ density functional calculations to obtain various molecular properties (the ground-state electron density, the magnitudes and orientations of the components of NMR chemical shift tensor, and the spatial distribution of the isotropic magnetic shielding) for the isolated molecules and for the molecules embedded in supramolecular clusters modeling the crystal environment and evaluate their differences. The concept has enabled us to rationalize the effect of the crystal packing on the NMR CSTs in terms of the redistribution of the ground-state electron density induced by intermolecular interactions in the solid state.

Survey of the magnetic behavior of [TTF] and [TTF2]2+ from shielding tensor maps

The overall magnetic response of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and its dimer dication, namely [TTF2]2+, is investigated using the representation of short- and long-range behavior through shielding tensor maps. In the dimeric dication an enhancing of the response is characterized due to the intermolecular π–π interaction and slightly bonding situation. Additionally, we use the ellipsoidal representation of the shielding tensor at the nucleus (σ) as a useful tool to understand the orientation of the anisotropy (skew parameter) derived from the chemical shift tensor components in the principal-axis-system (PAS) representation. From the anisotropy of the magnetic response in the space can be observed the gain in aromaticity upon oxidation of TTF.

A Solid-State 17O NMR Study of l-Tyrosine in Different Ionization States: Implications for Probing Tyrosine Side Chains in Proteins

We report experimental characterization of (17)O quadrupole coupling (QC) and chemical shift (CS) tensors for the phenolic oxygen in three l-tyrosine (l-Tyr) compounds: l-Tyr, l-Tyr.HCl, and Na(2)(l-Tyr). This is the first time that these fundamental (17)O NMR tensors are completely determined for phenolic oxygens in different ionization states. We find that, while the (17)O QC tensor changes very little upon phenol ionization, the (17)O CS tensor displays a remarkable sensitivity. In particular, the isotropic (17)O chemical shift increases by approximately 60 ppm upon phenol ionization, which is 6 times larger than the corresponding change in the isotropic (13)C chemical shift for the C(zeta) nucleus of the same phenol group. By examining the CS tensor orientation in the molecular frame of reference, we discover a "cross-over" effect between delta(11) and delta(22) components for both (17)O and (13)C CS tensors. We demonstrate that the knowledge of such "cross-over" effects is crucial for understanding the relationship between the observed CS tensor components and chemical bonding. Our results suggest that solid-state (17)O NMR can potentially be used to probe the ionization state of tyrosine side chains in proteins.

Solid-State 17O NMR and Computational Studies of C-Nitrosoarene Compounds

We report the first solid-state (17)O NMR determination of the (17)O quadrupole coupling (QC) tensor and chemical shift (CS) tensor for four (17)O-labeled C-nitrosoarene compounds: p-[(17)O]nitroso-N,N-dimethylaniline ([(17)O]NODMA), SnCl(2)(CH(3))(2)([(17)O]NODMA)(2), ZnCl(2)([(17)O]NODMA)(2), and [(17)O]NODMA.HCl. The (17)O quadrupole coupling constants (C(Q)) observed in these C-nitrosoarene compounds are on the order of 10-15 MHz, among the largest values found to date for organic compounds. The (17)O CS tensor in these compounds exhibits remarkable sensitivity toward the nitroso bonding scheme with the chemical shift anisotropy (delta(11) - delta(33)) ranging from just 350 ppm in [(17)O]NODMA.HCl to over 2800 ppm in [(17)O]NODMA. This latter value is among the largest (17)O chemical shift anisotropies reported in the literature. These extremely anisotropic (17)O NMR interactions make C-nitrosoarene compounds excellent test cases that allow us to assess the detection limit of solid-state (17)O NMR. Our results suggest that, at 21.14 T, solid-state (17)O NMR should be applicable to all oxygen-containing organic functional groups. We also show that density functional theory (DFT) calculations can reproduce reasonably well the experimental (17)O QC and CS tensors for these challenging molecules. By combining quantum chemical calculations with experimental solid-state (17)O NMR results, we are able to determine the (17)O QC and CS tensor orientations in the molecular frame of reference for C-nitrosoarenes. We present a detailed analysis illustrating how magnetic field-induced mixing between individual molecular orbitals (MOs) contributes to the (17)O shielding tensor in C-nitrosoarene compounds. We also perform a Townes-Dailey analysis for the observed (17)O QC tensors and show that (17)O CS and QC tensors are intrinsically related through the pi bond order of the N horizontal lineO bond. Furthermore, we are able for the first time to examine the parallelism between individual (17)O and (15)N CS tensor components in C-nitrosoarenes.

Solid-State NMR Analysis of Organic Cocrystals and Complexes

Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) is capable of providing detailed structural information about organic and pharmaceutical cocrystals and complexes. SSNMR nondestructively analyzes small amounts of powdered material and generally yields data with higher information content than vibrational spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction methods. These advantages can be utilized in the analysis of pharmaceutical cocrystals, which are often initially produced using solvent drop grinding techniques that do not lend themselves to single crystal growth for X-ray diffraction studies. In this work, several molecular complexes and cocrystals are examined to understand the capabilities of the SSNMR techniques, particularly their ability to prove or disprove molecular association and observe structural features such as hydrogen bonding. Dipolar correlation experiments between spin pairs such as 1H−1H, 1H−13C, and 19F−13C are applied to study hydrogen bonding, intermolecular contacts, and spin diffusion to link individual molecules together in a crystal structure and quickly prove molecular association. Analysis of the principal components of chemical shift tensors is also utilized where relevant, as these are more sensitive to structural effects than the isotropic chemical shift alone. In addition, 1H T1 relaxation measurements are also demonstrated as a means to prove phase separation of components. On the basis of these results, a general experimental approach to cocrystal analysis by SSNMR is suggested.

Formation and Characterization of Crystals Containing a Pleuromutilin Derivative, Succinic Acid and Water

An unusual pharmaceutical solid containing a pleuromutilin derivative, succinic acid and water is studied with a combination of physiochemical methods. The parent pleuromutilin derivative creates a host structure that contains large channels, which are occupied by variable amounts of both succinic acid and water. The inherent disorder of the system does not lend itself to detailed single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies; hence a combination of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and solid-state NMR (SSNMR) techniques were used to characterize this system and understand its behavior. A variety of one and two-dimensional SSNMR experiments were used to understand the proton transfer and the hydrogen bonding network, including 1H−13C heteronuclear correlation experiments and measurements of the principal components of 13C chemical shift tensors. This crystal system can exist as two distinct phases; a hemisuccinate phase containing a doubly ionized succinate molecule with two cations of the pleuromutilin derivati...

Spectral assignments and anisotropy data of cellulose Iα: 13C‐NMR chemical shift data of cellulose Iα determined by INADEQUATE and RAI techniques applied to uniformly 13C‐labeled bacterial celluloses of different Gluconacetobacter xylinus strains

Solid-state (13)C-NMR spectroscopy was used to characterize native cellulose pellicles from two strains of Gluconacetobacter xylinus (ATCC 53582, ATCC 23769), which had been statically cultivated in Hestrin-Schramm (HS) medium containing fully (13)C-labeled beta-D-glucose-U-(13)C(6) as the sole source of carbon. For both samples, the (13)C-NMR chemical shifts were completely assigned for each (13)C-labeled site of cellulose I(alpha) with the aid of 2D refocused INADEQUATE NMR. To determine the principal chemical shift tensor components, a pulse sequence based on the recoupling of anisotropy information (RAI) was applied at 10 kHz MAS. The detailed (13)C tensors of cellulose I(alpha) from different bacterial celluloses are thus available now for the first time, and these results have been compared with previously published data of nonenriched material and with theoretical predictions.

A structure refinement strategy for NMR crystallography: An improved crystal structure of silica-ZSM-12 zeolite from 29Si chemical shift tensors

A strategy for performing crystal structure refinements with NMR chemical shift tensors is described in detail and implemented for the zeolite silica-ZSM-12 (framework type code MTW). The 29Si chemical shift tensors were determined from a slow magic-angle spinning spectrum obtained at an ultrahigh magnetic field of 21.1 T. The Si and O atomic coordinate parameters were optimized to give the best agreement between experimentally measured and ab initio calculated principal components of the 29Si chemical shift tensors, with the closest Si–O, O–O, and Si–Si distances restrained to correspond with the distributions of the distances found in a set of single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) structures of high-silica zeolites. An improved structure for the silica-ZSM-12 zeolite, compared to a prior structure derived from powder XRD data, is obtained in which the agreement between the experimental and calculated 29Si chemical shift tensors is dramatically improved, the Si–O, O–O, and Si–Si distances correspond to the expected distributions, while the calculated powder XRD pattern remains in good agreement with the experimental powder XRD data. It is anticipated that this “NMR crystallography” structure refinement strategy will be an important tool for the accurate structure determination of materials that are difficult to fully characterize by traditional diffraction methods.

NMR Crystallography of Zeolites: Refinement of an NMR-Solved Crystal Structure Using ab Initio Calculations of 29Si Chemical Shift Tensors

An NMR structure refinement method for the NMR crystallography of zeolites is presented and demonstrated to give an NMR-determined crystal structure for the zeolite Sigma-2 that is in very good agreement with the single-crystal X-ray diffraction structure. The Si coordinates of the zeolite framework were solved from 29Si double-quantum NMR data obtained at a low magnetic field strength (7.0 T) and the Si and O coordinates were subsequently refined using the principal components of 29Si chemical shift tensors experimentally measured at an ultrahigh-field (21.1 T) and calculated using ab initio quantum chemical methods.

Probing Local Structure in Zeolite Frameworks: Ultrahigh-Field NMR Measurements and Accurate First-Principles Calculations of Zeolite 29Si Magnetic Shielding Tensors

The principal components of zeolite 29Si magnetic shielding tensors have been accurately measured and calculated for the first time. The experiments were performed at an ultrahigh magnetic field of 21.1 T in order to observe the small anisotropies of the 29Si shielding interactions that arise for Si atoms in near-tetrahedral geometries. A robust two-dimensional (2D) chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) recoupling pulse sequence was employed that enables quasi-static powder patterns to be resolved according to the isotropic chemical shifts. For the zeolites Sigma-2 and ZSM-12, it is demonstrated that the 29Si chemical shift (CS) tensor components measured by the recoupling experiment are in excellent agreement with those determined from spinning sidebands in slow magic-angle spinning (MAS) experiments. For the zeolite ZSM-5, the principal components of the 29Si CS tensors of 15 of the 24 Si sites were measured using the 2D CSA recoupling experiment, a feat that would not be possible with a slow MAS experiment due to the complexity of the spectrum. A simple empirical relationship between the 29Si CS tensors and local structural parameters could not be established. However, the 29Si magnetic shielding tensors calculated using Hartree-Fock ab initio calculations on clusters derived from the crystal structures are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. The accuracy of the calculations is strongly dependent on the quality of the crystal structure used in the calculation, indicating that the 29Si magnetic shielding interaction is extremely sensitive to the local structure around each Si atom. It is anticipated that the measurement and calculation of 29Si shielding tensors could be incorporated into the "NMR crystallography" of zeolites and other related silicate materials, possibly being used for structure refinements that may lead to crystal structures with very accurate Si and O atomic coordinates.

Experimental and Computational Characterization of the 17O Quadrupole Coupling and Magnetic Shielding Tensors for p-Nitrobenzaldehyde and Formaldehyde

We have used solid-state 17O NMR experiments to determine the 17O quadrupole coupling (QC) tensor and chemical shift (CS) tensor for the carbonyl oxygen in p-nitro-[1-(17)O]benzaldehyde. Analyses of solid-state 17O NMR spectra obtained at 11.75 and 21.15 T under both magic-angle spinning (MAS) and stationary conditions yield the magnitude and relative orientation of these two tensors: CQ = 10.7 +/- 0.2 MHz, etaQ = 0.45 +/- 0.10, delta11 = 1050 +/- 10, delta22 = 620 +/- 10, delta33 = -35 +/- 10, alpha = 90 +/- 10, beta = 90 +/- 2, gamma = 90 +/- 10 degrees. The principal component of the 17O CS tensor with the most shielding, delta33, is perpendicular to the H-C=O plane, and the tensor component with the least shielding, delta11, lies along the C=O bond. For the 17O QC tensor, the largest (chi(zz)) and smallest (chi(xx)) components are both in the H-C=O plane being perpendicular and parallel to the C=O bond, respectively. This study represents the first time that these two fundamental 17O NMR tensors have been simultaneously determined for the carbonyl oxygen of an aldehyde functional group by solid-state 17O NMR. The reported experimental solid-state 17O NMR results provide the first set of reliable data to allow evaluation of the effect of electron correlation on individual CS tensor components. We found that the electron correlation effect exhibits significant influence on 17O chemical shielding in directions within the H-C=O plane. We have also carefully re-examined the existing experimental data on the 17O spin-rotation tensor for formaldehyde and proposed a new set of best "experimental" 17O chemical shielding tensor components: sigma11 = -1139 +/- 80, sigma22 = -533 +/- 80, sigma33 = 431 +/- 5, and sigma(iso) = -414 +/- 60 ppm. Using this new set of data, we have evaluated the accuracy of quantum chemical calculations of the 17O CS tensors for formaldehyde at the Hartree-Fock (HF), density-functional theory (DFT), Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation (MP2), and coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) levels of theory. The conclusion is that, while results from HF and DFT tend to underestimate the electron correlation effect, the MP2 method overestimates its contribution. The CCSD results are in good agreement with the experimental data.