Decoupler nucleus

In homonuclear-shift-correlated experiments, the Ft domain corresponds to the nucleus under observation in heteronuclear-shift-correlated experiments. Ft relates to the unobserved or decoupled nucleus. It is therefore necessary to set the spectral width SW, after considering the ID spectrum of the nucleus corresponding to the Ft domain. In 2D /-resolved spectra, the value of SW depends on the magnitude of the coupling constants and the type of experiment. In both homonuclear and heteronuclear experiments, the size of the largest multiplet structure, in hertz, determines... 

SWi, which in turn is related to the homonuclear or heteronuclear coupling constants. In homonuclear 2D spectra, the transmitter offset frequency is kept at the center of (i.e., at = 0) and F domains. In heteronuclear-shift-correlated spectra, the decoupler offset frequency is kept at the center (Fi = 0) of thei i domain, with the domain corresponding to the invisible or decoupled nucleus. 

In NMR-SIM broadband heteronuclear decoupling can be "switched on" by assigning a rf channel to the decoupled nucleus. As shown in Fig. 2.9 decoupling can be switched on during acquisition and/or prior to the detection pulse. In the following section the most common decoupling methods will be briefly discussed. 

Broadband decoupling is used when the resonance frequency of the decoupled nucleus occurs over a wider range. It is used in NMR work. The spectra are obtained with decoupling of the nuclei. 

It was stated above that the Schrodinger equation cannot be solved exactly for any molecular systems. However, it is possible to solve the equation exactly for the simplest molecular species, Hj (and isotopically equivalent species such as ITD" ), when the motion of the electrons is decoupled from the motion of the nuclei in accordance with the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation. The masses of the nuclei are much greater than the masses of the electrons (the resting mass of the lightest nucleus, the proton, is 1836 times heavier than the resting mass of the electron). This means that the electrons can adjust almost instantaneously to any changes in the positions of the nuclei. The electronic wavefunction thus depends only on the positions of the nuclei and not on their momenta. Under the Bom-Oppenheimer approximation the total wavefunction for the molecule can be written in the following form ... 

The pulse sequence used in the reverse DEPT experiment is shown in Fig. 2.16. Presaturation of the protons removes all H magnetization and pumps up the C population difference due to nOe. Broad-band decoupling of the C nuclei may be carried out. The final spectrum obtained is a one-dimensional H-NMR plot that contains only the H signals to which polarization has been transferred—for instance, from the enriched C nucleus. 

Nonselective polarization transfer, as implied by the term, represents a process that allows simultaneous polarization transfer from all protons to a//X nuclei. In sefectmepolarization transfer, however, the population of just one nucleus is inverted at any one time. The selective polarization transfer sequence therefore cannot be used to generate a proton-decoupled C-spectrum containing all sensitivity-enhanced C resonances. 

Figure 4.7 Pulse schemes representing separation of decoupling effects from the nOe during X nucleus acquisition. The decoupler is programmed to produce noise-modulated irradiation or composite pulse decoupling at two power levels. Suitable setting of the decoupler may produce either (a) nOe only, (b) proton decoupling only, or (c) both nOe and proton decoupling.

Heteronuclear two-dimensional /-resolved spectra contain the chemical shift information of one nuclear species (e.g., C) along one axis, and its coupling information with another type of nucleus (say, H) along the other axis. 2D /-resolved spectra are therefore often referred to as /,8-spectra. The heteronuclear 2D /-resolved spectrum of stricticine, a new alkaloid isolated by one of the authors from Rhazya stricta, is shown in Fig. 5.1. On the extreme left is the broadband H-decoupled C-NMR spectrum, in the center is the 2D /-resolved spectrum recorded as a stacked plot, and on the right is the con tour plot, the most common way to present such spectra. The multiplicity of each carbon can be seen clearly in the contour plot. 

NMR probes are designed with the X-coil closest to the sample for improved sensitivity of rare nuclei. Inverse detection NMR probes have the proton coil inside the X-coil to afford better proton sensitivity, with the X-coil largely relegated to the task of broadband X-nucleus decoupling. These proton optimized probes are often used for heteronuclear shift correlation experiments. 

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