Ultrafast solid-state 2D NMR experiments via orientational encoding.

Abstract

Among the methods proposed in recent years toward the acceleration of multidimensional NMR acquisitions is an "ultrafast" approach, capable of delivering arbitrary 2D correlations within a single scan. This scheme operates by parallelizing the indirect-domain temporal incrementation involved in 2D acquisitions, using as aid an ancillary inhomogeneous frequency broadening acting in combination with a train of frequency-shifted RF pulses. So far, all implementations of this frequency broadening have relied on magnetic field gradients; yet the practical performance of gradient-based approaches is sometimes inadequate-for instance when applied on solid samples subject to magic-angle spinning. In order to deal with these cases, an alternative encoding protocol is here introduced and experimentally exemplified, based on exploiting the intrinsic anisotropy that spin interactions exhibit in the solid state as the ancillary broadening in charge of encoding the interactions to be measured. Principles and preliminary examples of the new orientationally encoded ultrafast 2D NMR principle thus resulting are presented and discussed.