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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) crystallography-an approach to structure determination that seeks to integrate solid-state NMR spectroscopy, diffraction, and computation methods-has emerged as an effective strategy to determine structures of difficult-to-characterize materials, including zeolites and related network materials. This paper explores how far it is possible to go in determining the structure of a zeolite framework from a minimal amount of input information derived only from solid-state NMR spectroscopy. It is shown that the framework structure of the fluoride-containing and tetramethylammonium-templated octadecasil clathrasil material can be solved from the 1D 29 Si NMR spectrum and a single 2D 29 Si NMR correlation spectrum alone, without the space group and unit cell parameters normally obtained from diffraction data. The resulting NMR-solved structure is in excellent agreement with the structures determined previously by diffraction methods. It is anticipated that NMR crystallography strategies like this will be useful for structure determination of other materials, which cannot be solved from diffraction methods alone.

Structure determination of layered materials can present challenges for conventional diffraction methods due to the fact that such materials often lack full three-dimensional periodicity since adjacent layers may not stack in an orderly and regular fashion. In such cases, NMR crystallography strategies involving a combination of solid-state NMR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and computational chemistry methods can often reveal structural details that cannot be acquired from diffraction alone. We present here the structure determination of a surfactant-templated layered silicate material that lacks full three-dimensional crystallinity using such an NMR crystallography approach. Through a combination of powder X-ray diffraction and advanced 29Si solid-state NMR spectroscopy, it is revealed that the structure of the silicate layer of this layered silicate material templated with cetyltrimethylammonium surfactant cations is isostructural with the silicate layer of a previously reported material referred to as ilerite, octosilicate, or RUB-18. High-field 1H NMR spectroscopy reveals differences between the materials in terms of the ordering of silanol groups on the surfaces of the layers, as well as the contents of the inter-layer space.

^(15)N-labeled rosette nanotubes were synthesized and investigated using high-field solid-state NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and electron microscopy. The results established the H-bond network involved in the self-assembly of the nanostructure as well as bound water molecules in the nanotube’s channel.

An improved NMR crystallography strategy is presented for determining the structures of network materials such as zeolites from just a single two-dimensional (2D) NMR correlation spectrum that probes nearest-neighbor interactions, combined with the unit cell parameters and space group information measured in a diffraction experiment. The correlation information contained within a 2D spectrum is converted into a “connectivity matrix” which is incorporated into a cost function whose minimum is searched for using a simulated annealing algorithm. The algorithm was extensively tested on over 150 zeolite frameworks from the International Zeolite Association database of zeolite structures and shown to be very robust and efficient in reconstructing the structures from connectivity information. The structure determination of the pure silica zeolites ITQ-4, Ferrierite, and Sigma-2 from experimental 2D 29 Si double-quantum NMR spectra and powder X-ray diffraction data using this improved approach is also presented.

An algorithm is presented for solving the structures of silicate network materials such as zeolites or layered silicates from solid-state 29 Si double-quantum NMR data for situations in which the crystallographic space group is not known. The algorithm is explained and illustrated in detail using a hypothetical two-dimensional network structure as a working example. The algorithm involves an atom-by-atom structure building process in which candidate partial structures are evaluated according to their agreement with SiOSi connectivity information, symmetry restraints, and fits to 29 Si double quantum NMR curves followed by minimization of a cost function that incorporates connectivity, symmetry, and quality of fit to the double quantum curves. The two-dimensional network material is successfully reconstructed from hypothetical NMR data that can be reasonably expected to be obtained for real samples. This advance in “NMR crystallography” is expected to be important for structure determination of partially ordered silicate materials for which diffraction provides very limited structural information.

A strategy for performing crystal structure refinements with NMR chemical shift tensors is described in detail and implemented for the zeolite silica-ZSM-12 (framework type code MTW). The 29Si chemical shift tensors were determined from a slow magic-angle spinning spectrum obtained at an ultrahigh magnetic field of 21.1T. The Si and O atomic coordinate parameters were optimized to give the best agreement between experimentally measured and ab initio calculated principal components of the 29Si chemical shift tensors, with the closest Si-O, O-O, and Si-Si distances restrained to correspond with the distributions of the distances found in a set of single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) structures of high-silica zeolites. An improved structure for the silica-ZSM-12 zeolite, compared to a prior structure derived from powder XRD data, is obtained in which the agreement between the experimental and calculated 29Si chemical shift tensors is dramatically improved, the Si-O, O-O, and Si-Si distances correspond to the expected distributions, while the calculated powder XRD pattern remains in good agreement with the experimental powder XRD data. It is anticipated that this "NMR crystallography" structure refinement strategy will be an important tool for the accurate structure determination of materials that are difficult to fully characterize by traditional diffraction methods.

We have followed the loading of xenon into the low density form of a van der Waals solid host, p- tert-butylcalix[4]arene (tBC), with solid-state NMR and X-ray diffraction (XRD), techniques sensitive to local and long-range order, respectively. Even though there was little change in the unit cell parameters, 13C and 129Xe solid-state NMR spectra indicate that significant structural changes occur in local order even at low levels of loading. In particular, 129Xe double quantum experiments, which probe distance-dependent 129Xe− 129Xe dipolar interactions, reveal that the closest Xe−Xe distances increase with Xe loading into the tBC host, suggesting that the tBC undergoes structural rearrangements as it absorbs Xe. Indeed, in light of the solid-state NMR results, a re-examination of partially loaded single crystals by XRD showed that up to a loading level (Xe/tBC ratio) of 0.25, the structure was closely related to that of the empty form with the typical calixarene bilayer structure; however, at higher loadi...

In this work, we examine two anhydrous polymorphs of caffeine, as well as the monohydrate, by high-field (21 T) NMR spectroscopy, and since suitable single crystals of the anhydrous forms could be obtained, the crystal structures were also determined. At high field, the 13C NMR spectra are simplified considerably over those obtained at low field as the effect of the 14N nuclear quadrupoles on the 13C resonances becomes minimal. The spectra of the two anhydrous polymorphs provide information about the number of distinct caffeine sites and indicate structural disorder. The NMR observations are consistent with single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which shows that the structures are indeed complicated by disorder. Furthermore, the space groups obtained previously from powder diffraction were, in fact, incorrect, R3c rather than R3c for the low-temperature polymorph and C2/c rather than Cc for the high-temperature polymorph. As a result, the structures are different from those proposed on the basis of modeling c...

The as-synthesized aluminophosphate framework material AlPO 4 -14A has a number of unique structural features related to the connectivities in the network of Al and P atoms. One tetrahedral Al atom is present that is linked, via Al–O(H)–Al bonds to two octahedral Al atoms and, consequently to only two P atoms. However, an Al/P ratio of one is maintained as each of these octahedral Al atoms is connected to five P atoms in addition to the Al–O(H)–Al linkage. This connectivity network means that a framework made up of alternating Al and P atoms cannot be obtained by calcination. A variety of 1 H, 27 Al, and 31 P solid state NMR experiments have been employed to characterize the AlPO 4 -14A structure. A fast 1 H MAS experiment showed that the template was in the protonated form and a 1 H{ 27 Al} TRAPDOR experiment identified the resonance of the ‘framework’ proton. The 27 Al and 31 P resonances were completely assigned by the 27 Al → 31 P INEPT heteronuclear correlation experiment and the quadrupolar parameters of the 27 Al signals determined from the 27 Al MQMAS experiment. Lastly, the complete assignment of both 27 Al and 31 P resonances made it possible to qualitatively determine the location and orientation of the template molecule within the framework from two-dimensional dipolar-based 1 H → 31 P cross-polarization and 1 H → 27 Al TEDOR heteronuclear correlation experiments. The data from these experiments confirm in detail the AlPO 4 -14A structure and will be useful benchmarks for the investigation of other structures for which diffraction data are limited.

The amblygonite-montebrasite series of minerals, common constituents of granitic pegmatites and topaz-bearing granites, show complete solid solution with ideal composition LiAlPO{sub 4}(F, OH). These compounds are ideal for studying F {leftrightarrow} OH solid solution in minerals because natural members of the series generally show little deviation from the ideal composition. In this study, we used powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction and solid-state {sup 6}Li MAS, CP MAS, and REDOR NMR techniques to study the effect of F {leftrightarrow} OH substitution on the series. Lattice parameters refined from single-crystal neutron diffraction data show increasing b and decreasing a, c, and V with increasing F/(F + OH). The volume is highest for the OH end-member because of the presence of an additional atom (H). The a and c parameters decrease with increasing F/(F + OH) because the O-H vector is close to the a-c plane and the Al-OH/F vectors are approximately parallel to c. Lattice parameters refined from neutron powder diffraction patterns collected at lower T show that thermal contraction increases with F/(F + OH), presumably because the F anion takes up less space than the OH molecule. The results show that the OH/F position is always fully occupied. The H displacementmore » ellipsoid shows little change with occupancy, which obviously corresponds negatively with increasing F/(F + OH). However, the Li displacement ellipsoid becomes extremely large and anisotropic with increasing F fraction. Most of the distortion is associated with the U{sub 3} eigenvalue, which lies between the c and c* directions. U{sub eq} values corresponding to the Li atom show a greater reduction with decreasing temperature than the other atoms. The temperature dependence of Li is the same regardless of F content. Even when extrapolated to absolute zero the Li displacement ellipsoid is very large, which implies a large static disorder.« less

The room temperature (298 K) structure of zeolite Silicalite-I loaded with approximately eight n-hexane molecules per unit cell was solved from twinned single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) data in the monoclinic space group P121/n1 with a = 19.8247(2) A, b = 20.1292(2) A, c = 13. 4510(2) A, and β = 90.29(8)°. At this temperature, the guest molecules are dynamically disordered and distributed throughout the entire channel system. The structure determined from a Rietveld refinement of room-temperature powder XRD data, which is not affected by the twinning, confirmed this. A twinned crystal refinement was also carried out for data collected at 180 K (P121/n1, a = 19.9310(2) A, b = 20.1730(3) A, c = 13.4191(3) A, β = 90.20(5)°). At 180 K, the sorption sites of the n-hexane molecules are well-defined within the channel system, being located only in the straight and sinusoidal channels, leaving the intersections unoccupied. This ordering is commensurate with the framework structure of Silicalite-I. 29Si HPDEC...

The complex of zeolite ZSM-5 loaded with p-nitroaniline to four molecules per unit cell is of current interest as a potential non-linear optical material. A previous single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigation has claimed that the p-nitroaniline molecules line up as oriented dipole chains inside the channels of ZSM-5, and it was concluded that this ordering explains how second harmonic generation arises. In another XRD study, it was not possible to distinguish between order and disorder of the p-nitroaniline molecules. The present results from solid-state NMR and single crystal XRD experiments indicate that the p-nitroaniline molecules are disordered in the ZSM-5 channels, i.e., they do not form ordered dipole chains throughout the entire crystal. The quantitative 29Si-MAS spectrum at room temperature shows 48 peaks of equal intensity indicating disorder of the guest molecules, and the 15N-MAS spectrum at 180 K of the 15N-labeled p-nitroaniline in ZSM-5 shows a splitting of the NO2 resonance, which also implies disorder. The single crystal XRD results show that the p-nitroaniline molecules are disordered over four-sites at the channel intersection even when refined in the less symmetric Pn21a space group. The final structure was refined in the orthorhombic Pnma space group to R=0.0465. The nature of this disorder is discussed. In particular, the possibilities of disorder arising from the average of polar domains or local disorder are examined in the light of the solid-state NMR results. That the p-nitroaniline molecules are disordered in ZSM-5 implies that the mechanism by which second harmonic generation arises may be more complex than is presently assumed.

A general protocol is demonstrated for determining the structures of molecularly ordered but noncrystalline solids, which combines constraints provided by X-ray diffraction (XRD), one- and two-dimensional solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and first-principles quantum chemical calculations. The approach is used to determine the structure(s) of a surfactant-directed layered silicate with short-range order in two dimensions but without long-range periodicity in three-dimensions (3D). The absence of long-range 3D molecular order and corresponding indexable XRD reflections precludes determination of a space group for this layered silicate. Nevertheless, by combining structural constraints obtained from solid-state (29)Si NMR analyses, including the types and relative populations of distinct (29)Si sites, their respective (29)Si-O-(29)Si connectivities and separation distances, with unit cell parameters (though not space group symmetry) provided by XRD, a comprehensive search of candidate framework structures leads to the identification of a small number of candidate structures that are each compatible with all of the experimental data. Subsequent refinement of the candidate structures using density functional theory calculations allows their evaluation and identification of "best" framework representations, based on their respective lattice energies and quantitative comparisons between experimental and calculated (29)Si isotropic chemical shifts and (2)J((29)Si-O-(29)Si) scalar couplings. The comprehensive analysis identifies three closely related and topologically equivalent framework configurations that are in close agreement with all experimental and theoretical structural constraints. The subtle differences among such similar structural models embody the complexity of the actual framework(s), which likely contain coexisting or subtle distributions of structural order that are intrinsic to the material.

Combining quantum-chemical calculations and ultrahigh-field NMR measurements of 29Si chemical shielding (CS) tensors has provided a powerful approach for probing the fine details of zeolite crystal structures. In previous work, the quantum-chemical calculations have been performed on ‘molecular fragments’ extracted from the zeolite crystal structure using Hartree–Fock methods (as implemented in Gaussian). Using recently acquired ultrahigh-field 29Si NMR data for the pure silica zeolite ITQ-4, we report the results of calculations using recently developed quantum-chemical calculation methods for periodic crystalline solids (as implemented in CAmbridge Serial Total Energy Package (CASTEP) and compare these calculations to those calculated with Gaussian. Furthermore, in the context of NMR crystallography of zeolites, we report the completion of the NMR crystallography of the zeolite ITQ-4, which was previously solved from NMR data. We compare three options for the ‘refinement’ of zeolite crystal structures from ‘NMR-solved’ structures: (i) a simple target-distance based geometry optimization, (ii) refinement of atomic coordinates in which the differences between experimental and calculated 29Si CS tensors are minimized, and (iii) refinement of atomic coordinates to minimize the total energy of the lattice using CASTEP quantum-chemical calculations. All three refinement approaches give structures that are in remarkably good agreement with the single-crystal X-ray diffraction structure of ITQ-4. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The complementary relationship between solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and diffraction techniques, specifically single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), is explained and illustrated. It is demonstrated how solid-state NMR and single-crystal XRD can be combined advantageously, allowing structural chemists to investigate the detailed structures of materials in a way that could not be achieved by using a single technique alone. By using few examples involving zeolites and organic host-guest complexes, the importance of a combined approach with solid-state NMR and single-crystal XRD for detailed structural characterization is illustrated. Keywords: solid-state NMR; X-ray diffraction; crystallography; zeolites; host-guest complexes; crystal structure; disorder; dynamics

(1)H magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra of p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene inclusion compounds with toluene and pyridine show large complexation-induced shifts of the guest proton resonances arising from additional magnetic shielding caused by the aromatic rings of the cavities of the host calixarene lattice. In combination with ab initio calculations, these observations can be employed for NMR crystallography of host-guest complexes, providing important spatial information about the location of the guest molecules in the host cavities.

An NMR structure refinement method for the NMR crystallography of zeolites is presented and demonstrated to give an NMR-determined crystal structure for the zeolite Sigma-2 that is in very good agreement with the single-crystal X-ray diffraction structure. The Si coordinates of the zeolite framework were solved from 29Si double-quantum NMR data obtained at a low magnetic field strength (7.0 T) and the Si and O coordinates were subsequently refined using the principal components of 29Si chemical shift tensors experimentally measured at an ultrahigh-field (21.1 T) and calculated using ab initio quantum chemical methods.

A common misconception is that X-ray diffraction is the best way to measure bond distances. However, in some cases where disorder is present it can yield incorrect answers. The silicon-fluoride bond distance in fluoride-containing zeolite SFF has been measured using two magic angle spinning NMR techniques. Both techniques, variable contact time cross polarization and spinning side band intensity fitting give shorter Si-F bond distances than X-ray diffraction.

An algorithm is described for efficiently assigning the resonances in NMR spectra to the inequivalent atoms in the structure under study based on the information in two-dimensional NMR correlation experiments and the ‘connectivities’ known from the structure. The algorithm, which is based on basic graph theory concepts, finds all possible assignments sets which are consistent with the experimentally observed correlations and known connectivities in a very efficient manner. It is designed to deal with less than ideal experimental data in which there may be overlapping peaks and uncertainty about the presence or absence of correlation peaks. The algorithm was primarily developed for assigning the peaks in the high-resolution solid-state 29 Si MAS NMR spectra of highly siliceous zeolites based on two-dimensional 29 Si INADEQUATE spectra and is described using the zeolites ZSM-12 and ZSM-5 as working examples. Peak assignment for zeolite frameworks is particularly challenging since there is often little or no information to distinguish peaks from one another such as characteristic chemical shifts, relative intensities, or different relaxation times. The algorithm may be a useful tool for easily, reliably, and efficiently working out peak assignments from other types of correlation experiments on other types of systems and further examples are provided in the Supplementary material.

The local structure of the [SiO(4/2)F]- unit in fluoride-containing as-synthesized STF zeolite has been experimentally determined by a combination of solid-state NMR and microcrystal X-ray diffraction to be very close to trigonal bipyramidal. Because the fluoride ions are disordered over two sites, the resulting local structure of the [SiO(4/2)F]- unit from a conventional XRD refinement is an average between tetrahedral SiO(4/2) and five-coordinate [[SiO(4/2)F]-, giving an apparent F-Si distance longer than expected. The correct F-Si distance was determined by slow spinning MAS and fast spinning (19)F/(29)Si CP and REDOR solid-state NMR experiments and found to be between 1.72 and 1.79 A. In light of this, the X-ray structure was re-refined, including the disorder at Si3. The resulting local structure of the [SiO(4/2)F]- unit was very close to trigonal bipyramidal with a F-Si distance of 1.744 (6) A, in agreement with the NMR results and the prediction of Density Functional Theory calculations. In addition, further evidence for the existence of a covalent F-Si bond is provided by a (19)F--(29)Si refocused INEPT experiment. The resonance for the five-coordinate species at -147.5 ppm in the (29)Si spectrum is a doublet due to the (19)F/(29)Si J-coupling of 165 Hz. The peaks in this doublet have remarkably different effective chemical shift anisotropies due to the interplay of the CSA, dipolar coupling, and J-coupling tensors. The distortions from tetrahedral geometry of the neighboring silicon atoms to the five-coordinate Si3 atom are manifested in increased delta(aniso) values. This information, along with F-Si distances measured by (19)F--(29)Si CP experiments, makes it possible to assign half of the (29)Si resonances to unique tetrahedral sites. As well as determining the local geometry of the [SiO(4/2)F]- unit, the work presented here demonstrates the complementarity of the solid-state NMR and X-ray diffraction techniques and the advantages of using them together.

An NMR crystallography strategy is presented for solving the structures of materials such as zeolites and related network materials from a combination of the unit cell and space group information derived from a diffraction experiment and a single two-dimensional NMR correlation spectrum that probes nearest-neighbour interactions. By requiring only a single 2D NMR spectrum, this strategy overcomes two limitations of previous approaches. First, the structures of materials having poor signal-to-noise in solid-state NMR experiments can be investigated using this approach since a series of 2D spectra is not required. Secondly, the structures of aluminophosphate materials can potentially be determined from 27Al/31P solid-state NMR experiments since this approach does not require the isolated spin pairs which have been important for determining structures of silicate materials by 29Si solid-state NMR. Using concepts from graph theory, the structure solution strategy is described in detail using a hypothetical two-dimensional network structure. A collection of two-dimensional network structures generated by the algorithm under various initial conditions is presented. The algorithm was tested on a series of 27 zeolite framework types found in the International Zeolite Association’s zeolite structure database. Finally, the structure of the zeolite ITQ-4 was solved from powder X-ray diffraction data and a single 29Si double quantum NMR correlation spectrum. The limitations of the strategy are discussed and new directions for this approach are outlined.