Deuterium-carbon NMR correlation spectroscopy: a tool for structural characterization of solids

Correlation between quadrupolar interactions of deuterons and chemical-shielding interactions of spin-1/2 in spatial proximity by 2D solid-state NMR provides structural information, such as torsional angles and relative orientations of molecular fragments. The correlation is established by cross-polarization under slow magic-angle sample spinning over the whole frequency ranges of both nuclei virtually uniformly. We demonstrate an application to glycine, where the torsional angle around the CO–Cα bond is evaluated by measuring the relative orientations between the 13CO chemical-shielding-anisotropy tensor and the two 2Dα quadrupolar tensors. The technique can be used to characterize the conformation of synthetic and bio-polymers.