High-speed satellite transition 27Al MAS NMR spectroscopy

Compensating the asymmetric probe response in broad MAS NMR spectra of quadrupolar nuclei

The spinning sidebands envelope of satellite transitions often display an asymmetric shape, which is caused by an asymmetric response of the NMR probe circuit. In this work, we revisit the basic concepts of the RLC circuit at the heart of every NMR probe and present two approaches capable of minimizing this artifact. While the first one consists of deliberately mistuning the probe, the second one relies on measuring the probe's response function and deconvoluting its contribution from the spectra. Both approaches are validated with ²³Na NMR spectra of a lead-free relaxor ferroelectric (BNT-1BT). This material is particularly suitable as an example of the applicability of both strategies for samples with a disordered local structure.

Optimizing STMAS

The 2D satellite transition magic angle spinning (STMAS) experiment generates efficiently high-resolution isotropic NMR spectra of half-integer quadrupolar nuclei. The experiment involves excitation and coherence transfer of satellite transitions into the central transition. It requires efficient refocusing of satellite transitions and sample spinning at a very accurate magic angle to cancel the first-order quadrupolar interaction effect. A review of all parameters relevant to optimizing the STMAS experiment is presented, including pulse sequence calibration, regulating spinning speed, magic angle adjustment, optimization of satellite transition excitation, and coherence transfer for both I = 3/2 and I > or =5/2 nuclei.

Line shapes and widths of MAS sidebands for 27Al satellite transitions. multinuclear MAS NMR of tugtupite Na8Al2Be2Si8O24Cl2

A multinuclear 9Be, 23Na, 27Al, and 29Si magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR study has been performed for the mineral tugtupite (Na8Al2Be2Si8O24Cl2). The extremely well-resolved spectra allow observation of separate spinning sidebands (ssb's) from the inner (+/- 1/2, +/- 3/2) and outer (+/- 3/2, +/- 5/2) 27Al satellite transitions, and are utilized in a detailed analysis of the line shapes and widths of the individual ssb's from simulations. The line widths of the ssb's from the inner and outer 27Al satellite transitions are found to decrease systematically with increasing order of the ssb's across the spectrum. Accurate values for the 9Be, 23Na, and 27Al quadrupole coupling parameters and isotropic chemical shifts are obtained from simulations of the manifolds of ssb's from the satellite transitions. MAS NMR of the 9Be satellite transitions for tugtupite, BeO, and beryl(Al2Be3Si6O18) shows that these transitions are particularly useful for determination of 9Be quadrupole couplings because of the small 9Be quadrupole moment. The 29Si shielding anisotropy of delta sigma = 48 ppm in tugtupite is the largest determined so far for a framework SiO4 tetrahedron. Finally, the crystal structure of the tugtupite sample has been refined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and correlations between the multinuclear NMR parameters and structural data are reported.