A new polarizing agent with superior performance in dynamic nuclear polarization experiments is introduced, and utilizes two TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) moieties connected through a rigid spiro tether (see structure). The observed NMR signal intensities were enhanced by a factor of 1.4 compared to those of TOTAPOL, a previously described TEMPO-based biradical with a flexible tether.

Dynamic nuclear polarization with a rigid biradical

Rapid progress has been witnessed in the past decade in the fields of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). In this contribution, we bridge these two fields by constructing radical-embedded COFs as promising DNP agents. Via polarization transfer from unpaired electrons to nuclei, DNP realizes significant enhancement of NMR signal intensities. One of the crucial issues in DNP is to screen for suitable radicals to act as efficient polarizing agents, the basic criteria for which are homogeneous distribution and fixed orientation of unpaired electrons. We therefore envisioned that the crystalline and porous structures of COFs, if evenly embedded with radicals, may work as a new “crystalline sponge” for DNP experiments. As a proof of concept, we constructed a series of proxyl-radical-embedded COFs (denoted as PR(x)-COFs) and successfully applied them to achieve substantial DNP enhancement. Benefiting from the bottom-up and multivariate synthetic strategies, proxyl radicals ...

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Exploring Applications of Covalent Organic Frameworks: Homogeneous Reticulation of Radicals for Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Surface Enhanced NMR spectroscopy has been demonstrated to significantly improve NMR sensitivity on materials by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude at high magnetic fields. The preferential surface enhancement also allows for selectively probing the solid surface. In this review, we will briefly describe the main mechanism used nowadays, i.e. cross effect, for DNP enhanced solid-state NMR. We will show the typical protocols of sample formulation leading to effective DNP surface enhancements and the key experimental factors in performing DNP SENS experiments. Other important developments in DNP, i.e. shielded polarizing agents for reactive surfaces, hyperpolarizing solid matrices, and high-temperature and high-field DNP, will be discussed as well. Finally, we close the review with a short summary and our perspectives on the directions of future developments in this field.

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Surface Enhanced NMR spectroscopy (DNP SENS): Principles, protocols, and practice

Hyperpolarization by dynamic nuclear polarization relies on the microwave irradiation of paramagnetic radicals dispersed in molecular glasses to enhance the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals of target molecules. However, magnetic or chemical interactions between the radicals and the target molecules can lead to attenuation of the NMR signal through paramagnetic quenching and/or radical decomposition. Here we describe polarizing materials incorporating nitroxide radicals within the walls of the solids to minimize interactions between the radicals and the solute. These materials can hyperpolarize pure pyruvic acid, a particularly important substrate of clinical interest, while nitroxide radicals cannot be used, even when incorporated in the pores of silica, because of reactions between pyruvic acid and the radicals. The properties of these materials can be engineered by tuning the composition of the wall by introducing organic functionalities.

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Tailored Polarizing Hybrid Solids with Nitroxide Radicals Localized in Mesostructured Silica Walls

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at cryogenic temperatures has proved to be a valuable technique to enhance the sensitivity of solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Over the years, sample formulations have been optimized for experiments at cryogenic temperatures. At 9.4 T, the best performing polarizing agents are dinitroxides such as AMUPol and TEKPol that lead to enhancement factors of around 250 at 100 K. However, the performance of these radicals plummets at higher temperatures. Here we introduce trehalose-based DNP polarizing matrices, suitable to embed biomolecular assemblies. Several formulation protocols are investigated, in combination with various polarizing agents, including a new biradical structure chemically tethered to a trehalose molecule. The DNP efficiency of these new polarizing media is screened as a function of the radical concentration, the hydration level of the matrix and the protein content. Sizeable enhancement factors are reported at 100 K and 9.4 T. More importantly, we show that the DNP performance of these new polarizing media outperform the conventionally used water/glycerol mixture at temperatures above 180 K. This study establishes trehalose matrices as a promising DNP medium for experiments at temperatures >150 K where conventional water-based formulations soften and are no longer viable, thus opening new avenues for DNP enhanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy at temperatures close to ambient temperature.

/pdf/trehalose-matrices-for-high-temperature-dynamic-nuclear-1s2bcv20.pdf

Trehalose matrices for high temperature dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced solid state NMR.

Hyperpolarization of NMR-active nuclei is key to gather high quality spectra of rare species and insensitive isotopes. We have recently established that silica-based materials containing regularly distributed nitroxyl radicals connected to the silica matrix by flexible linkers can serve as promising polarization matrices for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). Here we investigate the influence of the linker on the efficiency of the polarization. The materials were fully characterized and exhibit high surface areas and narrow pore size distributions with a tunable amount of phenyl azide groups over a broad range of concentrations. The phenyl azide groups can be easily functionalized via a two-step procedure with 4-carboxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-oxylpiperidine (TEMPO) to give polarizing matrices with controllable radical content. The DNP efficiency was found to be similar as in materials with flexible linkers, both for magic angle spinning at 105 K and dissolution DNP at 4 K.

/pdf/phenylazide-hybrid-silica-polarization-platform-for-dynamic-5a4y40yqnx.pdf

Harald Bieringer

Papers

Phenylazide Hybrid-Silica – Polarization Platform for Dynamic Nuclear Polarization at Cryogenic Temperatures