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Seven prototypical microporous titanosilicates have been studied by multinuclear solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy, representing four typical Ti environments: square-pyramidal TiO5 units (natisite, AM-1, ETS-4), edge-shared brookite-type TiO6 chains (AM-4), cubane-type Ti4O16 clusters (sitinakite, GTS-1), and corner-shared TiO6 chains (ETS-10, ETS-4). Ti-47/49 SSNMR spectra at 21.1 T are related to the coordination, crystal symmetry, and local environment of Ti. Distortions in TiO bond lengths and OTiO coordination angles are reflected via C-Q(Ti-47/49) values that range from 8 to 16 MHz. Several titanosilicates feature axially symmetric Ti-47/49 electric field gradient (EFG) tensors that permit facile spectral assignment and detection of deviations in local symmetry. This study uses Si-29 NMR experiments to assess phase purity and crystallinity. Na-23 NMR is used to probe the location and mobility of the sodium ions in the framework. The potential of K-39 SSNMR for investigation of extra-framework counter cations is demonstrated by ETS-10, with increased spectral resolution and enhanced sensitivity to changes in local environment versus Na-23 experiments. Plane-wave DFT calculations predicted Ti-47/49 NMR parameters assisting in spectral assignments and help correlate Na-23 and Si-29 NMR resonances to crystallographic sites. The approach described in this work should promote further SSNMR investigations of microporous solids, such as titanosilicates, with unknown or poorly defined structures.

The acid properties of a dehydrated borosilicate, HAMS-1B (H-[B]-ZSM-5), including the acid types, strengths, location, and quantities are investigated by means of trialkylphosphine oxides through multinuclear ID/2D MAS NMR experiments. B-11 DQF-STMAS combined with H-1 MAS NMR studies revealed B-OH and distinct Si-OH protons associated with trigonal boron. P-31 NMR spectra of TMPO-treated HAMS-1B reveal three Bronsted and three Lewis acid sites. We have found a number of limitations applying the TMPO/TBPO method to identify internal/external acidity. Therefore, we propose a new approach to unambiguously discriminate external/internal acid sites by treating a pore-free and pore-blocked HAMS-1B zeolite. This method provided unique structural insight regarding the identification of boron species/coordinations associated with Bronsted/Lewis acid sites. Additionally, ICP analysis in tandem with solid-state NMR enabled full assignment of the detected internal/external acid species and the study of their acid strength. Moreover, we identify the nature of TMPO complexes arising from Bronsted/Lewis interactions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A method for heteronuclear decoupling in fast magic-angle spinning NMR measurements comprises application of a decoupling RF-pulse sequence with a decoupling-field amplitude ν 1 I on spins of a first nucleus and of an excitation pulse on spins of a second nucleus, the sequence comprising m blocks of pulses, with m≧4, each block comprising an N-fold repetition of a pair of pulses with pulse width τ p and phases whereby τ p is equal for all pulses, whereby the phase of the pulse pair of the (i+1)-th block is inverted with respect to the pulse pair of the i-th block, with i=1 . . . m−1 and i is an odd number, whereby the pulses within each pair are phase inverted, whereby a phase shift is carried out after each j-th block, with j is an even number. The efficiency of the inventive method compares favourably with CW, TPPM, SPINAL and XiX decoupling methods at medium and high RF amplitudes, particularly under rotary resonance conditions.

Two peptide fragments, corresponding to the amino acid residues 106–126 (PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2]) and 106–114 (PrP[Ac-106–114-NH 2]) of the human prion protein have been synthesised in the acetylated and amide form at their N- and C-termini, respectively. The conformational preferences of PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2] and PrP[Ac-106–114-NH 2] were investigated using CD and NMR spectroscopy. CD results showed that PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2] mainly adopts an α-helical conformation in TFE–water mixture and in SDS micelles, while a predominantly random structure is observed in aqueous solution. The shorter PrP[Ac-106–114-NH 2] fragment showed similar propensities when investigated under the same experimental conditions as those employed for PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2]. From CD experiments at different SDS concentrations, an α-helix/β-sheet conformational transition was only observed in the blocked PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2] sequence. The NMR analysis confirmed the helical nature of PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2] in the presence of SDS micelles. The shorter PrP[Ac-106–114-NH 2] manifested a similar behaviour. The results as a whole suggest that both hydrophobic effects and electrostatic interactions play a significant role in the formation and stabilisation of ordered secondary structures in PrP[Ac-106–126-NH 2].

The resolving power of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) crystallography depends heavily on the accuracy of computational predictions of NMR chemical shieldings of candidate structures, which are usually taken to be local minima in the potential energy. To test the limits of this approximation, we systematically study the importance of finite-temperature and quantum nuclear fluctuations for $^1$H, $^{13}$C, and $^{15}$N shieldings in polymorphs of three paradigmatic molecular crystals -- benzene, glycine, and succinic acid. The effect of quantum fluctuations is comparable to the typical errors of shielding predictions for static nuclei with respect to experiments, and their inclusion to improve the agreement with measurements, translating to more reliable assignment of the NMR spectra to the correct candidate structure. The use of integrated machine-learning models, trained on first-principles energies and shieldings, renders rigorous sampling of nuclear fluctuations affordable, setting a new standard for the calculations underlying NMR structure determinations.

We report dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy in viral capsids from HIV-1 and bacteriophage AP205. Viruses regulate their life cycles and infectivity through modulation of their structures and dynamics. While static structures of capsids from several viruses are now accessible with near-atomic-level resolution, atomic-level understanding of functionally important motions in assembled capsids is lacking. We observed up to 64-fold signal enhancements by DNP, which permitted in-depth analysis of these assemblies. For the HIV-1 CA assemblies, a remarkably high spectral resolution in the 3D and 2D heteronuclear data sets permitted the assignment of a significant fraction of backbone and side-chain resonances. Using an integrated DNP MAS NMR and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approach, the conformational space sampled by the assembled capsid at cryogenic temperatures was mapped. Qualitatively, a remarkable agreement was observed for the experimental C-13/N-15 chemical shift distributions and those calculated from substructures along the MD trajectory. Residues that are mobile at physiological temperatures are frozen out in multiple conformers at cryogenic conditions, resulting in broad experimental and calculated chemical shift distributions. Overall, our results suggest that DNP MAS NMR measurements in combination with MD simulations facilitate a thorough understanding of the dynamic signatures of viral capsids.