Experimental determination of the carboxylate oxygen electric-field-gradient and chemical shielding tensors in l-alanine and l-phenylalanine

We report a solid-state 17O NMR study of the 17O electric-field-gradient (EFG) and chemical shielding (CS) tensors for each carboxylate group in polycrystalline l-alanine and l-phenylalanine. The magic angle spinning (MAS) and stationary 17O NMR spectra of these compounds were obtained at 9.4, 14.1, and 16.4 T. Analyzes of these 17O NMR spectra yielded reliable experimental NMR parameters including 17O CS tensor components, 17O quadrupole coupling parameters, and the relative orientations between the 17O CS and EFG tensors. The extensive quantum chemical calculations at both the restricted Hartree–Fock and density-functional theories were carried out with various basis sets to evaluate the quality of quantum chemical calculations for the 17O NMR tensors in l-alanine. For 17O CS tensors, the calculations at the B3LYP/D95∗∗ level could reasonably reproduce 17O CS tensors, but they still showed some discrepancies in the δ11 components by approximately 36 ppm. For 17O EFG calculations, it was advantageous to use calibrated Q value to give acceptable CQ values. The calculated results also demonstrated that not only complete intermolecular hydrogen-bonding networks to target oxygen in l-alanine, but also intermolecular interactions around the NH 3 + group were significant to reproduce the 17O NMR tensors.