The determination of enantiomeric excess of valine by ODESSA solid-state NMR experiment

Multinuclear NMR in polypeptide liquid crystals: Three fertile decades of methodological developments and analytical challenges

NMR spectroscopy of oriented samples makes accessible residual anisotropic intramolecular NMR interactions, such as chemical shift anisotropy (RCSA), dipolar coupling (RDC), and quadrupolar coupling (RQC), while preserving high spectral resolution. In addition, in a chiral aligned environment, enantiomers of chiral molecules or enantiopic elements of prochiral compounds adopt different average orientations on the NMR timescale, and hence produce distinct NMR spectra or signals. NMR spectroscopy in chiral aligned media is a powerful analytical tool, and notably provides unique information on (pro)chirality analysis, natural isotopic fractionation, stereochemistry, as well as molecular conformation and configuration. Significant progress has been made in this area over the three last decades, particularly using polypeptide-based chiral liquid crystals (CLCs) made of organic solutions of helically chiral polymers (as PBLG) in organic solvents. This review presents an overview of NMR in polymeric LCs. In particular, we describe the theoretical tools and the major NMR methods that have been developed and applied to study (pro)chiral molecules dissolved in such oriented solvents. We also discuss the representative applications illustrating the analytical potential of this original NMR tool. This overview article is dedicated to thirty years of original contributions to the development of NMR spectroscopy in polypeptide-based chiral liquid crystals.

Chirality-Induced Electron Spin Polarization and Enantiospecific Response in Solid-State Cross-Polarization Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

NMR-based techniques are supposed to be incapable of distinguishing pure crystalline chemical enantiomers. However, through systematic studies of cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP-MAS) NMR in a series of amino acids, we have found a rather unexpected behavior in the intensity pattern of optical isomers in hydrogen/nitrogen nuclear polarization transfer that would allow the use of CP NMR as a nondestructive enantioselective detection technique. In all molecules considered, the d isomer yields higher intensity than the l form, while the chemical shift for all nuclei involved remains unchanged. We attribute this striking result to the onset of electron spin polarization, accompanying bond charge polarization through a chiral center, a secondary mechanism for polarization transfer that is triggered only in the CP experimental setup. Electron spin polarization is due to the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect (CISS), which creates an enantioselective response, analogous to the one involved in molecular recognition and enantiospecific separation with achiral magnetic substrates. This polarization influences the molecular magnetic environment, modifying the longitudinal relaxation time T₁ of ¹H, and ultimately provoking the observed asymmetry in the enantiomeric response.

A vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) methodology for the measurement of enantiomeric excess in chiral compounds in the solid phase and for the complementary use of NMR and VCD techniques in solution: the camphor case

For the first time, the success of a methodology for the determination of enantiomeric excess (% ee) in chiral solid samples by vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy is reported. We have used camphor to determine the % ee in a blind sample constituted by a mixture of its two enantiomers as a test for the validity of our approach. IR and VCD spectra of different enantiomeric mixtures of R/S-camphor in Nujol mulls were recorded and linear regressions of VCD intensities (ΔAbs.) vs. % ee for selected bands were found. Finally, the VCD intensities of a blind sample were interpolated in these linear regressions, obtaining its % ee with a rms of 2.4. These results in the solid phase were complemented with the determination of % ee in the liquid phase by VCD and NMR techniques, which are proved to be complementary techniques to carry out this kind of analysis. In the same way as in the VCD solid phase, linear regressions of ΔAbs. vs. % ee for selected bands were established, obtaining a rms of 1.1 in the % ee determination of a blind sample. ¹H NMR experiments at 600 MHz using the chiral solvating agent, (S,S)-ABTE, allow the determination of the proportions of enantiomers in CD₂Cl₂ solution with great accuracy. ¹³C CPMAS NMR spectra prove that this technique cannot be used for conglomerates and/or solid solutions.