Measuring JHH values with a selective constant-time 2D NMR protocol

Extracting Scalar Couplings From Complex 1H NMR Spectra Using a Simple 2D J-Resolved Sequence

Measurement of scalar couplings between protons is a very challenging task because of complex multiplet patterns and severe overlapping of these multiplets in congested 1D spectra. Numerous 2D J-resolved sequences now exist that utilize either the Zangger-Sterk or PSYCHE or z-filter elements along with selective refocusing and pure-shift schemes to generate high-resolution phase-sensitive spectra with simple doublets inF 1 $$ {F}_1 $$ dimension. Herein, we present a 2D J-resolved sequence that employs a simple element consisting of hard pulses and inter-pulse delays to generate phase-sensitive spectra. This simple element in combination with selective refocusing eliminates all the undesired components including the intense axial peaks, thus provides clean 2D J-resolved spectra with signals of only two targeted protons with simple doublets inF 1 $$ {F}_1 $$ dimension and full multiplets of target protons inF 2 $$ {F}_2 $$ dimension. This high selectivity thus obviates the need for extra filtering elements and pure-shift acquisition schemes that are integrated into existing sequences to facilitate coupling measurements in overcrowded signals. It is therefore anticipated that this sequence, with the ease of implementation and ability to extract coupling values from highly congested spectra, should turn out an important tool for structural and conformational analyses in chemical and biological studies.

Unambiguous and accurate measurement of scalar coupling constants through a selective refocusing NMR experiment

Scalar coupling plays an important role in the analysis of molecular structure and dynamics. A great number of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) selective refocusing experiments, such as 2D G-SERF and PSYCHEDELIC, were developed to extract scalar coupling constants involving a selected proton from overlapped spectra. However, intense axial peaks occur in this type of experiments, leading to possible ambiguity in the assignment of spectral peaks and subsequent accurate measurement of ¹H-¹H scalar coupling constants. Here, a method based on selective coherence transfer and PSYCHEDELIC module is designed to acquire absorption-mode selective refocusing spectrum while suppressing intense axial peaks. Therefore, unambiguous and accurate measurement of scalar coupling constants involving the selectively excited proton can be achieved. The performances of the proposed method are demonstrated on several samples.

Highly Efficient Determination of Complex NMR Multiplet Structures in Inhomogeneous Magnetic Fields

Proton-proton scalar (J) coupling plays an important role in disentangling molecular structures and spatial conformations. But it is challenging to extract J coupling networks from congested ¹H NMR spectra, especially in inhomogeneous magnetic fields. Herein, we propose a general liquid NMR protocol, named HR-G-SERF, to implement highly efficient determination of individual J couplings and corresponding coupling networks via simultaneously suppressing effects of spectral congestions and magnetic field inhomogeneity. This method records full-resolved 2D absorption-mode spectra to deliver great convenience for multipet analyses on complex samples. More meaningfully, it is capable of disentangling multiplet structures of biological samples, that is, grape sarcocarp, despite of its heterogeneous semisolid state and extensive compositions. In addition, a modification, named AH-G-SERF, is developed to compress experimental acquisition and subsequently improve unit-time SNR, while maintaining satisfactory spectral performance. This accelerated variant may further boost the applicability for rapid NMR detections and afford the possibility of adopting hyperpolarized substances to enhance the overall sensitivity. Therefore, this study provides a promising tool for molecular structure elucidations and composition analyses in chemistry, biochemistry, and metabonomics among others.

PE-SERF: A sensitivity-improved experiment to measure JHH in crowded spectra

Aiming at facilitating the analysis of molecular structure, the gradient-encoded selective refocusing methods (G-SERF) and a great number of its variants for measuring proton-proton coupling constants have been proposed. However, the sensitivity is an issue in the 2D gradient-encoded experiments, because the signal intensity is determined by the slice thickness of the sample that depends on encoding gradient and the bandwidth of selective pulses which is limited by the smallest chemical shift difference of any two coupled protons. Here, we present a method dubbed PE-SERF (perfect echo selective refocusing) which can determine all J_HH values involving a selected proton with improved sensitivity compared to original G-SERF experiment. The modules of perfect echo involving selective pulses and gradient-encoded selective refocusing are combined in the method, so that the unwanted J couplings arising from coupled spin pairs in the same sample slice would be nullified. In this way, instead of single proton, a pair of coupled protons is allowed to share a sample slice, and thus the slice thickness can be increased and the spectral sensitivity can be improved. The performance of the method is demonstrated by experiments on quinine and strychnine.

High-resolution methods for the measurement of scalar coupling constants

Scalar couplings provide important information regarding molecular structure and dynamics. The measurement of scalar coupling constants constitutes a topic of interest and significance in NMR spectroscopy. However, the measurement of J values is often not straightforward because of complex signal splitting patterns and signal overlap. Many methods have been proposed for the measurement of scalar coupling constants, both for homonuclear and heteronuclear cases. Different approaches to the measurement of scalar coupling constants are reviewed here with several applications presented. The accurate measurement of scalar coupling constants can greatly facilitate molecular structure elucidation and the study of molecule dynamics.

A quarter of a century of SERF: The progress of an NMR pulse sequence and its application

SERF, an NMR pulse sequence for selectively measuring a spin coupling constant without interference from other couplings, was published by the current author almost 25 years ago in 1995. Since then, about 35 modifications and extensions of the original have been published by other groups and applied to many chemical problems. This review discusses these modifications and provides pertinent examples. A comparative and critical evaluation of these developments is given in tabular form. The last part focuses on the chemical results.

Combining pure shift and J-edited spectroscopies: A strategy for extracting chemical shifts and scalar couplings from highly crowded proton spectra of oligomeric saccharides

We report the application of pure shift and J-edited nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies to the structural analysis of a protected maltotrioside synthetic intermediate whose crowded ¹ H spectrum displays highly crowded regions. The analytical strategy is based on the implementation of J-edited and TOCSY experiments whose resolution is optimized by the use of broadband homonuclear decoupling and selective refocusing techniques, to assign and measure chemical shifts and homonuclear scalar couplings with high accuracy. The resulting data show a high level of complementarity, providing a detailed insight into each subunit of this oligomeric saccharide, even for proton sites whose nuclear magnetic resonance signals strongly overlap. This approach allowed for fully assigning proton chemical shifts and extracting 80% of the ³ J_HH couplings that are in excellent agreement with those expected for D-gluco-pyranosyl units in ⁴ C₁ conformations.

Combining Fourier phase encoding and broadband inversion toward J-edited spectra

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra are often utilized for gathering accurate information relevant to molecular structures and composition assignments. In this study, we develop a homonuclear encoding approach based on imparting a discrete phase modulation of the targeted cross peaks, and combine it with a pure shift experiments (PSYCHE) based J-modulated scheme, providing simple 2D J-edited spectra for accurate measurement of scalar coupling networks. Chemical shifts and J coupling constants of protons coupled to the specific protons are demonstrated along the F₂ and F₁ dimensions, respectively. Polychromatic pulses by Fourier phase encoding were performed to simultaneously detect several coupling networks. Proton-proton scalar couplings are chosen by a polychromatic pulse and a PSYCHE element. Axis peaks and unwanted couplings are complete eradicated by incorporating a selective COSY block as a preparation period. The theoretical principles and the signal processing procedure are laid out, and experimental observations are rationalized on the basis of theoretical analyses.

Current developments in homonuclear and heteronuclear J-resolved NMR experiments

Two-dimensional J-resolved (Jres) NMR experiments offer a simple, user-friendly spectral representation where the information of coupling constants and chemical shifts are separated into two orthogonal frequency axis. Since its initial proposal 40 years ago, Jres has been the focus of considerable interest both in improving the basic pulse sequence and in its successful application to a wide range of studies. Here, the latest developments in the design of novel Jres pulse schemes are reviewed, mainly focusing on obtaining pure absorption lineshapes, minimizing strong coupling artifacts, and also optimizing sensitivity and experimental measurements. A discussion of several Jres versions for the accurate measurement of a different number of homonuclear (J_HH ) and heteronuclear (J_CH ) coupling constants is presented, accompanied by some illustrative examples.

A simultaneous multi-slice selective J-resolved experiment for fully resolved scalar coupling information

Proton-proton scalar coupling plays an important role in molecular structure elucidation. Many methods have been proposed for revealing scalar coupling networks involving chosen protons. However, determining all J_HH values within a fully coupled network remains as a tedious process. Here, we propose a method termed as simultaneous multi-slice selective J-resolved spectroscopy (SMS-SEJRES) for simultaneously measuring J_HH values out of all coupling networks in a sample within one experiment. In this work, gradient-encoded selective refocusing, PSYCHE decoupling and echo planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) detection module are adopted, resulting in different selective J-edited spectra extracted from different spatial positions. The proposed pulse sequence can facilitate the analysis of molecular structures. Therefore, it will interest scientists who would like to efficiently address the structural analysis of molecules.

Accurate measurement of JHH in overlapped signals by a TOCSY-edited SERF Experiment

Selective refocusing (GSERF or the recent PSYCHEDELIC) experiments were originally designed to determine all proton-proton coupling constants (J_HH ) for a selected proton resonance. They work for isolated signals on which selective excitation can be successfully applied but, as it happens in other selective experiments, fail for overlapped signals. To circumvent this limitation, a doubly-selective TOCSY-GSERF scheme is presented for the measurement of J_HH in protons resonating in crowded regions. This new experiment takes advantage of the editing features of an initial TOCSY transfer to uncover hidden resonances that become accessible to perform the subsequent frequency-selective refocusing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accelerating two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance correlation spectroscopy via selective coherence transfer

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy serves as an important tool for both qualitative and quantitative analyses of various systems in chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, applications of one-dimensional ¹H NMR are often restrained by the presence of severe overlap among different resonances. The advent of two-dimensional (2D) ¹H NMR constitutes a promising alternative by extending the crowded resonances into a plane and thereby alleviating the spectral congestions. However, the enhanced ability in discriminating resonances is achieved at the cost of extended experimental duration due to necessity of various scans with progressive delays to construct the indirect dimension. Therefore, in this study, we propose a selective coherence transfer (SECOT) method to accelerate acquisitions of 2D correlation spectroscopy by converting chemical shifts into spatial positions within the effective sample length and then performing an echo planar spectroscopic imaging module to record the spatial and spectral information, which generates 2D correlation spectrum after 2D Fourier transformation. The feasibility and effectiveness of SECOT have been verified by a set of experiments under both homogeneous and inhomogeneous magnetic fields. Moreover, evaluations of SECOT for quantitative analyses are carried out on samples with a series of different concentrations. Based on these experimental results, the SECOT may open important perspectives for fast, accurate, and stable investigations of various chemical systems both qualitatively and quantitatively.