High resolution 13C DOSY: the DEPTSE experiment

Determination of self-diffusion coefficients in mixtures with benchtop 13C NMR spectroscopy via polarization transfer

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an established method to determine self-diffusion coefficients in liquids with high precision. The development of benchtop NMR spectrometers makes the method accessible to a wider community. In most cases, 1H NMR spectroscopy is used to determine self-diffusion coefficients due to its high sensitivity. However, especially when using benchtop NMR spectrometers for the investigation of complex mixtures, the signals in 1H NMR spectra can overlap, hindering the precise determination of self-diffusion coefficients. In 13C NMR spectroscopy, the signals of different compounds are generally well resolved. However, the sensitivity of 13C NMR is significantly lower than that of 1H NMR spectroscopy leading to very long measurement times, which makes diffusion coefficient measurements based on 13C NMR practically infeasible with benchtop NMR spectrometers. To circumvent this problem, we have combined two known pulse sequences, one for polarization transfer from 1H to the 13C nuclei (PENDANT) and one for the measurement of diffusion coefficients (PFG). The new method (PENPFG) was used to measure the self-diffusion coefficients of three pure solvents (acetonitrile, ethanol and 1-propanol) as well as in all their binary mixtures and the ternary mixture at various compositions. For comparison, also measurements of the same systems were carried out with a standard PFG-NMR routine on a high-field NMR instrument. The results are in good agreement and show that PENPFG is a useful tool for the measurement of the absolute value of the self-diffusion coefficients in complex liquid mixtures with benchtop NMR spectrometers.

The interpretation of small molecule diffusion coefficients: Quantitative use of diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy

Measuring accurate molecular self-diffusion coefficients, D, by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques has become routine as hardware, software and experimental methodologies have all improved. However, the quantitative interpretation of such data remains difficult, particularly for small molecules. This review article first provides a description of, and explanation for, the failure of the Stokes-Einstein equation to accurately predict small molecule diffusion coefficients, before moving on to three broadly complementary methods for their quantitative interpretation. Two are based on power laws, but differ in the nature of the reference molecules used. The third addresses the uncertainties in the Stokes-Einstein equation directly. For all three methods, a wide range of examples are used to show the range of chemistry to which diffusion NMR can be applied, and how best to implement the different methods to obtain quantitative information from the chemical systems studied.

13C-DOSY-TOSY NMR Correlation for In Situ Analysis of Structure, Size Distribution, and Dynamics of Prebiotic Oligosaccharides

Arabinoxylan oligosaccharides (AXOS) are a complex mixture of cereal derived, water-soluble prebiotics, obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of arabinoxylan, a group of dietary fibers exerting numerous nutritional and health-beneficial effects. Such complex biomolecular mixtures are notoriously difficult to characterize without initial physical fractionation. Here we present the in situ analysis of AXOS using a variety of state-of-the-art sensitivity-enhanced ¹³C-DOSY methods, enabling virtual separation and identification of the components. Three dimensional correlation plots displaying ¹³C diffusivity (DOSY: Diffusion Ordered SpectroscopY), relaxation parameters (TOSY: raTe of relaxation Ordered SpectrscopY), and chemical shift offer a unique way to elucidate the composition of mixtures. We have demonstrated this multifaceted ¹³C probed correlation strategy in standard mixtures of aliphatic and aromatic compounds, before implementing it on AXOS. These 3D-DOSY-TOSY plots in combination with 2D-NMR correlation experiments offer unprecedented clarity for assigning chemical functions, molecular size distribution, and dynamics of oligosaccharide mixtures.

An integrated approach for mixture analysis using MS and NMR techniques

We suggest an improved software pipeline for mixture analysis. The improvements include combining tandem MS and 2D NMR data for a reliable identification of the constituents in an algorithm based on network analysis aiming for a robust and reliable identification routine. An important part of this pipeline is the use of open-data repositories, although it is not totally reliant on them. The NMR identification step emphasizes robustness and is less sensitive towards changes in data acquisition and processing than existing methods. The process starts with LC-ESI-MSMS based molecular network dereplication using data from the GNPS collaborative collection. We identify closely related structures by propagating structure elucidation through edges in the network. Those identified compounds are added on top of a candidate list for the following NMR filtering method that predicts HSQC and HMBC NMR data. The similarity of the predicted spectra of the set of closely related structures to the measured spectra of the mixture sample is taken as one indication of the most likely candidates for its compounds. The other indication is the match of the spectra to clusters built by a network analysis from the spectra of the mixture. The sensitivity gap between NMR and MS is anticipated and it will be reflected naturally by the eventual identification of fewer compounds, but with a higher confidence level, after the NMR analysis step. The contributions of the paper are an algorithm combining MS and NMR spectroscopy and a robust nJCH network analysis to explore the complementary aspects of both techniques. This delivers good results, even if a perfect computational separation of the compounds in the mixture is not possible. All of the scripts are freely available to aid studies such as with plants, marine organisms, and microorganism natural product chemistry and metabolomics, as those are the driving forces for this project.

Matrix-assisted DOSY

The analysis of mixtures by NMR spectroscopy is challenging. Diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy enables a pseudo-separation of species based on differences in their translational diffusion coefficients. Under the right circumstances, this is a powerful technique; however, when molecules diffuse at similar rates separation in the diffusion dimension can be poor. In addition, spectral overlap also limits resolution and can make interpretation challenging. Matrix-assisted diffusion NMR seeks to improve resolution in the diffusion dimension by utilising the differential interaction of components in the mixture with an additive to the solvent. Tuning these matrix-analyte interactions allows the diffusion resolution to be optimised. This review presents the background to matrix-assisted diffusion experiments, surveys the wide range of matrices employed, including chromatographic stationary phases, surfactants and polymers, and demonstrates the current state of the art.

A pure shift and spin echo based approach for high-resolution diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy

Diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) can be used for separating mixture components according to their individual diffusion behaviors, thus offering a powerful tool for the analysis of compound mixtures. However, conventional DOSY experiments generally encounter the problem of limited resolution in the spectral domain, particularly for applications to complex mixtures that contains crowed resonances in 1D NMR. In addition, chemical exchange effects, bringing about spurious component signals, pose another limitation for interpreting DOSY measurements. Here, a general DOSY method is proposed based on pure shift extraction and spin echo evolution to obtain high-resolution 2D DOSY spectra, along with the suppression on effects of chemical exchange and J coupling. Both theoretical analyses and experimental results suggest that the proposed method is useful for high-resolution DOSY measurements on complex mixtures that contains crowded or even overlapped NMR resonances and exchanging spin systems.

Suppression of 13C satellites in 1H DOSY spectra

Diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) is a valuable tool for the analysis of intact mixtures, since it can separate the signals of components according to their apparent diffusion coefficients. However, DOSY experiments are acutely sensitive to spectral quality, and especially to signal overlap, which can lead to misleading apparent diffusion coefficients. Here, we introduce a new NMR experiment to reduce signal overlap in mixtures with a wide range of concentrations, by removing one-bond ¹³C satellites. In such high dynamic range mixtures, ¹³C isotopomer signals from major components can overlap with signals from minor components, causing problematic distortions in the diffusion domain of a DOSY spectrum. The new method, Oneshot-iDISPEL, is a combination of the Oneshot and DISPEL experiments, and its performance has been demonstrated on a Greek alcoholic beverage, ouzo, which contains small amounts of anise flavour components and sucrose. Ethanol is a major component, and the suppression of its ¹³C satellites reduces signal overlap with minor components, offering significant improvement in DOSY spectra.

Oxazolidine Transient Bases as Molecular Platforms for Testing Dynamic CO2 Capture in Biochemical Systems

Understanding the dynamic processes of CO₂ capture in biosystems is important because of the great effect CO₂ has on the carbon cycle, human health, the global climate, and living environments. After years of multidisciplinary studies, researchers have gained only basic mechanistic knowledge about how enzymes or protein-aggregates capture and deliver CO₂, a process involving reversible bonding of CO₂ with basic amino acid residues. However, vital mechanistic details of how the activated basic residues within these enzymes or protein-aggregates are initially formed, a crucial step for CO₂ capture, are still lacking. Herein, we designed specific molecules, i.e., oxazolidines, which are able to reversibly change their alkalinity via ultrafast isomerizations. Serving as so-called transient bases, these oxazolidines mimic the activated/deactivated states of enzymes or protein-aggregates responsible for dynamic CO₂ capture/release. A detailed mechanism for CO₂ capture, which involves dynamic covalent bonding and multimolecular cooperative interactions among functional groups that occur with the help of a polyhydroxyl environment, is demonstrated by UV-vis and multiple NMR spectroscopies as well as theoretical calculations. Using suitable oxazolidine transient bases, applications for visual CO₂ detection under different detection limit requirements were also developed. Insights for further understanding the process of dynamic CO₂ capture in biosystems are also discussed. This oxazolidine-inspired biomimetic CO₂ capture serves as a platform for the future development of additional biomimicking systems, as well as offers unique perspectives for other complicated life processes.

Selective diffusion spectroscopy using excitation sculpting

Diffusion spectroscopy NMR provides a sensitive and fast way of determining diffusion coefficient. The coefficient is measured by fitting attenuation of resonance intensities to the Stejskal-Tanner equation, but, because it is an exponential equation, this fitting is quite sensitive to experimental artefacts. Intense resonances in NMR spectra, such as solvent signals, are a particular problem because small fractions of intensity of the intense resonances can significantly change the intensities of minor resonances and distort their calculated diffusion coefficients. This problem can be overcome by selective excitation of only the minor resonances, and the method of choice for this is excitation sculpting. This paper shows that the conventional excitation sculpting pulse sequence can be used directly for DOSY spectroscopy with minimal modification. The sequence suppresses intense resonances very effectively, allowing the reproducible measurement of diffusion coefficients of minor solutes in a solvent containing five separate resonances. It is sensitive and robust to convection. Excitation sculpting will allow the application of diffusion spectroscopy to samples which include multiple intense resonances, such as polymeric solvents. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

19 F NMR matrix-assisted DOSY: a versatile tool for differentiating fluorinated species in mixtures

NMR is the most versatile tool for the analysis of organic compounds and, in combination with Diffusion-Ordered Spectroscopy ('DOSY'), can give information on compounds in complex mixtures without the need for physical separation. In mixtures where the components' diffusion coefficients are nearly identical, for example because of similar sizes, Matrix-Assisted DOSY ('MAD') can help separate the signals of different constituents, resolving their spectra. Unfortunately, DOSY (including MAD) typically fails where signals overlap, as is common in ¹ H NMR. Using ¹⁹ F NMR avoids such problems, because the great sensitivity of the ¹⁹ F chemical shift to local environment leads to very well-dispersed spectra. Another advantage is the absence of any ¹⁹ F background signals from the matrices typically used, avoiding interference with the analyte signals. In this study, differentiation among fluorophenol and fluoroaniline isomers was evaluated using normal and reverse micelles-of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (AOT)-as matrices. These surfactants provide useful diffusion separation in these difficult mixtures, with all the solutes interacting with the matrices to different extents, in some cases leading to differences in diffusion coefficient of more than 30%. The best matrices for separating the signals of both acid and basic species were shown to be AOT and CTAB, which are useful over a wide range of surfactant concentration. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance measurements (PFG NMR) for diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) mapping

The advent of Diffusion Ordered SpectroscopY (DOSY) NMR has enabled diffusion coefficients to be routinely measured and used to characterize chemical systems in solution. Indeed, DOSY NMR allows the separation of the chemical entities present in multicomponent systems and provides information on their intermolecular interactions as well as on their size and shape.

Relaxation-encoded NMR experiments for mixture analysis: REST and beer

A new family of NMR experiments for mixture analysis (Relaxation-Encoded Selective TOCSY, REST) allows the extraction of component subspectra from mixtures.

Very broadband diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy: (19)F DOSY

A new pulse sequence, CHORUS Oneshot, allows measurements of diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) spectra over the full chemical shift range of (19)F for the first time. Swept-frequency pulses are used to give very broadband excitation; the sequence is a prototype for a large family of very broadband liquid state NMR methods.

Silica sol assisted chromatographic NMR spectroscopy for resolution of trans- and cis-isomers

Chromatographic NMR spectroscopy can separate the mixtures of species with significantly different molecular size, but generally fails for isomeric species. Herein, we reported the resolution of trans- and cis-isomers and their structural analogue, which are different in molecular shapes, but similar in mass, were greatly enhanced in the presence of silica sol. The mixtures of maleic acid, fumaric acid and succinic acid, and the mixtures of trans- and cis-1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acids, were distinguished by virtue of their different degrees of interaction with silica sol. Moreover, we found mixed solvents could improve the spectral resolution of DOSY spectra of mixtures.

Radical Cyclisation of α-Halo Aluminium Acetals: A Mechanistic Study

α-Bromo aluminium acetals are suitable substrates for Ueno-Stork-like radical cyclisations affording γ-lactols and acid-sensitive methylene-γ-lactols in high yields. The mechanistic study herein sets the scope and limitation of this reaction. The influence of the halide (or chalcogenide) atom X (X=Cl, Br, I, SPh, SePh) in the precursors α-haloesters, as well as influence of the solvent and temperature was studied. The structure of the aluminium acetal intermediates resulting from the reduction of the corresponding α-haloesters has been investigated by low-temperature (13) C-INEPT diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) experiments and quantum calculations, providing new insights into the structures of these thermally labile intermediates. Oxygen-bridged dimeric structures with a planar Al2 O2 ring are proposed for the least hindered aluminium acetals, while monomeric structures seem to prevail for the most hindered species. A comparison against the radical cyclisation of aluminium acetals derived from allyl and propargyl alcohols with the parent Ueno-Stork has been made at the BHandHLYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory, highlighting mechanistic similarities and differences.

Directly decoupled diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy for the analysis of compound mixtures

For the analysis of compound mixtures by NMR spectroscopy, it is important to assign the different peaks to the individual constituents. Diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) is often used for the separation of signals based on their self-diffusion coefficient. However, this method often fails in the case of signal overlap, which is a particular problem for (1)H-detected DOSY spectra. Herein, an approach that allows the acquisition of homonuclear broadband-decoupled DOSY spectra without the introduction of an additional decoupling dimension, by instant decoupling during acquisition, is presented. It was demonstrated on a mixture of six alcohols, and the investigation of the binding of a dodecapeptide to membrane mimetics.

19F DOSY NMR analysis for spin systems with nJFF couplings

NMR is a powerful method for identification and quantification of drug components and contaminations. These problems present themselves as mixtures, and here, one of the most powerful tools is DOSY. DOSY works best when there is no spectral overlap between components, so drugs containing fluorine substituents are well-suited for DOSY analysis as (19)F spectra are typically very sparse. Here, we demonstrate the use of a modified (19)F DOSY experiment (on the basis of the Oneshot sequences) for various fluorinated benzenes. For compounds with significant (n) JFF coupling constants, as is common, the undesirable J-modulation can be efficiently suppressed using the Oneshot45 pulse sequence. This investigation highlights (19)F DOSY as a valuable and robust method for analysis of molecular systems containing fluorine atoms even where there are large fluorine-fluorine couplings.

Disentangling diffusion information of individual components in a mixture with a 3D COMPACT-IDOSY NMR experiment

A new 3D diffusion-ordered heteronuclear NMR experiment COMPACT-IDOSY (cross-polarization optimized multisite polarized accelerated time internally encoded diffusion ordered spectroscopy) has been designed and experimentally implemented on a mixture of flavonoids rutin and quercetin. The pulse sequence uses a cross-polarization mixing period and diffusion encoding gradients internally incorporated into the coherence transfer interval of a long-range heteronuclear correlation experiment. Substantial reduction in experimental time, good sensitivity and excellent resolution of signal overlap lead to the accurate determination of translational diffusion coefficients of individual components in the mixture.