Improving resolution in proton solid-state NMR by removing nitrogen-14 residual dipolar broadening

High-resolution proton-detected MAS experiments on self-assembled diphenylalanine nanotubes enabled by fast MAS and high magnetic field

The advent of ultrahigh magnetic field and fast magic-angle-spinning (MAS) probe technology has led to dramatically enhanced spectral resolution and sensitivity in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. In particular, proton-based multidimensional solid-state NMR techniques have become feasible to investigate the structure and dynamics at atomic resolution, due to the increased chemical shift span and spectral resolution. Herein, the benefits of faster MAS and higher magnetic field are demonstrated on a self-assembled diphenylalanine (Phe-Phe) nanomaterial. Proton-detected 2D ¹H/¹H single-quantum/single-quantum (SQ/SQ) correlation, double-quantum/single-quantum (DQ/SQ) correlation, and ¹H chemical shift anisotropy/chemical shift (CSA/CS) correlation spectra obtained at two different spinning speeds (60 and 100 kHz) and two different magnetic fields (600 and 900 MHz) are reported. The dramatic enhancement of proton spectral resolution achieved with the use of a 900 MHz magnetic field and 100 kHz MAS is remarkable and enabled the measurement of proton CSA tensors, which will be useful to better understand the self-assembled structures of Phe-Phe nanotubes. We also show through numerical simulations that the unaveraged proton-proton dipolar couplings can result in broadening of CSA lines, leading to inaccurate determination of CSA tensors of protons. Thus, our results clearly show the insufficiency of a 600 MHz magnetic field to resolve ¹H spectra lines and the inability of a moderate spinning speed of 60 kHz to completely suppress ¹H-¹H dipolar couplings, which further justify the pursuit of ultrahigh magnetic field beyond 1 GHz and ultrafast MAS beyond 100 kHz.

Determination of NH proton chemical shift anisotropy with (14)N-(1)H heteronuclear decoupling using ultrafast magic angle spinning solid-state NMR

The extraction of chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensors of protons either directly bonded to (14)N nuclei (I=1) or lying in their vicinity using rotor-synchronous recoupling pulse sequence is always fraught with difficulty due to simultaneous recoupling of (14)N-(1)H heteronuclear dipolar couplings and the lack of methods to efficiently decouple these interactions. This difficulty mainly arises from the presence of large (14)N quadrupolar interactions in comparison to the rf field that can practically be achieved. In the present work it is demonstrated that the application of on-resonance (14)N-(1)H decoupling with rf field strength ∼30 times weaker than the (14)N quadrupolar coupling during (1)H CSA recoupling under ultrafast MAS (90kHz) results in CSA lineshapes that are free from any distortions from recoupled (14)N-(1)H interactions. With the use of extensive numerical simulations we have shown the applicability of our proposed method on a naturally abundant l-Histidine HCl·H2O sample.

Elucidating the structure of poly(dopamine)

Herein we propose a new structure for poly(dopamine), a synthetic eumelanin that has found broad utility as an antifouling agent. Commercially available 3-hydroxytyramine hydrochloride (dopamine HCl) was polymerized under aerobic, aqueous conditions using tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (TRIS) as a basic polymerization initiator, affording a darkly colored powder product upon isolation. The polymer was analyzed using a variety of solid state spectroscopic and crystallographic techniques. Collectively, the data showed that in contrast to previously proposed models, poly(dopamine) is not a covalent polymer but instead a supramolecular aggregate of monomers (consisting primarily of 5,6-dihydroxyindoline and its dione derivative) that are held together through a combination of charge transfer, π-stacking, and hydrogen bonding interactions.