Growing Signals from the Noise: Challenging Nuclei in Materials DNP

The polarization of nuclear spins by dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has redefined the sensitivity limits of solid‐state (SS) NMR spectroscopy. Materials science has been arguably one of the key beneficiaries of the recent remarkable advances of the technique, which included low‐temperature magic angle spinning (MAS), modern gyrotrons, and biradical agents for polarization transfer via the cross‐effect. In many classes of materials, DNP offers the capability of selectively sensitizing progressively smaller surface and interfacial regions of materials and eliciting responses from previously undetectable nuclei, with no detrimental effect on resolution. We review the most recent applications of DNP‐enhanced SSNMR to materials, focusing specifically on measurements that pose insurmountable challenges to conventional SSNMR, including the detection of 15N, 17O, 25Mg, 35Cl, 43Ca, 79Br, 89Y, 119Sn, and 195Pt by one‐dimensional MAS methods, ultrawideline NMR, as well as two‐dimensional homo‐ and heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy

In Silico Design of DNP Polarizing Agents: Can Current Dinitroxides Be Improved?

Numerical calculations of enhancement factors offered by dynamic nuclear polarization in solids under magic angle spinning (DNP‐MAS) were performed to determine the optimal EPR parameters for a dinitroxide polarizing agent. We found that the DNP performance of a biradical is more tolerant to the relative orientation of the two nitroxide moieties than previously thought. Generally, any condition in which the gyy tensor components of both radicals are perpendicular to one another is expected to have near‐optimal DNP performance. Our results highlight the important role of the exchange coupling, which can lessen the sensitivity of DNP performance to the inter‐radical distance, but also lead to lower enhancements when the number of atoms in the linker becomes less than three. Lastly, the calculations showed that the electron T1e value should be near 500 μs to yield optimal performance. Importantly, the newest polarizing agents already feature all of the qualities of the optimal polarizing agent, leaving little room for further improvement. Further research into DNP polarizing agents should then target non‐nitroxide radicals, as well as improvements in sample formulations to advance high‐temperature DNP and limit quenching and reactivity

Large-scale ab initio simulations of MAS DNP enhancements using a Monte Carlo optimization strategy

Magic-angle-spinning (MAS) dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has recently emerged as a powerful technology enabling otherwise unrealistic solid-state NMR experiments. The simulation of DNP processes which might, for example, aid in refining the experimental conditions or the design of better performing polarizing agents, is, however, plagued with significant challenges, often limiting the system size to only 3 spins. Here, we present the first approach to fully ab initio large-scale simulations of MAS DNP enhancements. The Landau-Zener equation is used to treat all interactions concerning electron spins, and the low-order correlations in the Liouville space method is used to accurately treat the spin diffusion, as well as its MAS speed dependence. As the propagator cannot be stored, a Monte Carlo optimization method is used to determine the steady-state enhancement factors. This new software is employed to investigate the MAS speed dependence of the enhancement factors in large spin systems where spin diffusion is of importance, as well as to investigate the impacts of solvent and polarizing agent deuteration on the performance of MAS DNP

Linear-scaling ab initio simulations of spin diffusion in rotating solids

We investigated the utility of locally restricting the basis sets involved in low-order correlations in Liouville space (LCL) calculations of spin diffusion. Using well-known classical models of spin diffusion, we describe a rationale for selecting the optimal basis set for such calculations. We then show that the use of these locally restricted basis sets provides the same computational accuracy as the full LCL set while reducing the computational time by several orders of magnitude. Speeding up the calculations also enables us to use higher maximum spin orders and increase the computational accuracy. Furthermore, unlike exact and full LCL calculations, locally restricted LCL calculations scale linearly with the system size and should thus enable the ab initio study of spin diffusion in spin systems containing several thousand spins

Reducing t1 noise through rapid scanning

The so-called t1 noise, which arises due to random instabilities in the spectrometer hardware, remains the primary source of noise that limits the sensitivity of most 2D NMR experiments, particularly in the expanding group of solid-state NMR methods that utilize dipolar-recoupling. In this communication we revisit the relationship between the signal intensity and the t1 noise produced. It is shown that since the latter scales linearly with the signal strength, the use of a conventional relaxation delay of 1.3T1 may prove far from optimal. In cases where the fluctuations occur on a shorter timescale than the recycle delay, a considerably faster repetition rate should be used to maximize the time sensitivity in a 2D experiment than what is used to maximize the sensitivity in 1D. This is demonstrated with the acquisition of 1H{13C} Dipolar-mediated Heteronuclear Multiple-Quantum Correlation (D-HMQC) type spectra in which the sensitivity could be nearly doubled by choosing a very short relaxation delay corresponding to 0.2T1

t1-Noise Eliminated Dipolar Heteronuclear Multiple-Quantum Coherence Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Heteronuclear correlation (HETCOR) spectroscopy is one of the key tools in the arsenal of the solid-state NMR spectroscopist to probe spatial proximity between two different nuclei and enhance spectral resolution. Dipolar heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence (D-HMQC) is a powerful technique that can be potentially utilized to obtain 1H detected 2D HETCOR solid-state NMR spectra of any NMR active nucleus. A long-standing problem in 1H detected D-HMQC solid-state NMR experiments is the presence of t1-noise which reduces sensitivity and impedes spectral interpretation. In this contribution, we describe novel pulse sequences, termed t1-noise eliminated (TONE) D-HMQC, that suppress t1-noise and can provide higher sensitivity and resolution than conventional D-HMQC. Monte-Carlo and numerical simulations confirm that t1-noise in conventional D-HMQC primarily occurs because random MAS frequency fluctuations cause variations in the NMR signal amplitude from scan to scan, leading to imperfect cancellation of uncorrelated signals by phase cycling. The TONE D-HMQC sequence uses 1H p-pulses to refocus the evolution of 1H CSA across each recoupling block, improving the stability of the pulse sequence to random MAS frequency fluctuations. The 1H refocusing pulses also restore the orthogonality of in-phase and anti-phase magnetization for all crystallite orientations, enabling the use of 90° flip-back or LG spin-lock trim pulses to reduce the intensity of uncorrelated signals. We demonstrate the application of these methods to acquire detected 2D 1H-35Cl and 1H-13C HETCOR spectra of histidine•HCl•H2O with reduced t1-noise. To show generality, we also apply these methods to obtain 2D 1H-17O spectra of 20%-17O fmoc-alanine and for the first time at natural abundance, 2D 1H-25Mg HETCOR spectra of magnesium hydroxide. The TONE D-HMQC sequences are also used to probe 1H-25Mg and 1H-27Al proximities in Mg-Al layered double hydroxides and confirm the even mixing of Mg and Al in these materials