Spin diffusion direct observation

Depending on experimental parameters, NOE intensities will be affected by spin diffusion (Eig. 8). Magnetization can be transferred between two protons via third protons such that the NOE between the two protons is increased and may be observed even when the distance between the two protons is above the usual experimental limit. This is a consequence of the distance dependence of the NOE. Depending on the conformation, it can be more efficient to move magnetization over intennediate protons than directly. The treatment of spin diffusion during structure refinement is reviewed in more detail in Refs. 31, and 71-73. 

These intermolecular correlation peaks mean that intermolecular cross polarization (CP) occurs between the carbon and proton of intermolecular -interacting polypeptides in blend. There may be two pathways for the observed intermolecular CP. One is that a direct transfer from proton to carbon exists, and another is that a change in the magnetization by spin diffusion (homonuclear Hartmann Hahn transfer) exists. It is thought that the former is much more efficient than the latter because the former comes from only one magnetization transfer process, but the latter comes from two... 

Further possibilities are offered by various two-dimensional NMR methods. For example, heteronuclear solid-state correlation spectroscopy (27) is capable of correlating the spectra of abundant and dilute spins in solids, simplifying spectral assignment and permitting determination of shielding tensors. Futhermore, spin diffusion among abundant spins can be directly observed by this method. 

The main source of conformational information for biopolymers are the easy-to-obtain chemical shifts that can be translated into dihedral restraints. In addition, for fully 13C labeled compounds, proton-driven spin diffusion between carbons [72] can be used to measure quantitatively distances between carbons. The CHHC experiment is the equivalent of the NOESY in solution that measures distances between protons by detecting the resonances of the attached carbons. While both techniques, proton-driven spin diffusion and CHHC experiment [73], allow for some variation in the distance as determined from cross-peak integrals, REDOR [74] experiments in selective labeled compounds measure very accurate distances by direct observation of the oscillation of a signal by the dipolar coupling. While the latter technique provides very accurate distances, it provides only one piece of information per sample. Therefore, the more powerful techniques proton-driven spin diffusion and CHHC have taken over when it comes to structure determination by ss-NMR of fully labeled ligands. 

Whereas the I-S model is simple to understand and is widely applied, it is not sufficient to describe the CP kinetics for solids with heterogeneous populations of the source spins. The I-I -S model takes into account the efficiency of spin diffusion, which relies on homonuclear dipolar interactions and proceeds through ffip-ffop spin transitions. The I-I -S model relies on the existence of different proton populations, denoted I for the protons directly bound to an 5 spin under study and I for the rest of the proton network. The CP proceeds in two steps. A fast rise of the intensity is observed initially due to the transfer of the magnetization to a dilute spin (I -S) by the abundant spins in close proximity followed by a slow rise of the intensity or damped oscillation. Several equations have been proposed to describe the CP kinetics the simplest... 

The dynamics of the rotor speed can be conveniently analysed and adjusted by feeding a signal from the rotor motion monitor (via an optical fibre) to a console ADC (Fig. 7). The corresponding spectra are shown in Fig. 8. The faster sweep clearly reduces K12, and to a lesser extent K13. Both direct complementary peaks (1-Kmn) and relayed peaks depend on the product of complementary transfer coefficients, and correlate well with the expected influence of the sweep rate variation. The observed relay process can be shorted by proton-driven spin diffusion. Consequently, efficient rotation-speed independent (or carefully synchronized) decoupling is required during the entire mixing period. 

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