Tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)silane as a standard compound for fast spinning Solid-State NMR experiments.

The development of magic angle spinning (MAS) at rates ranging from 30 kHz to greater than 100 kHz has substantially advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) spectroscopy ¹ H-detection methods. The small rotors required for such MAS rates have a limited sample volume and low ¹³ C-detection sensitivity, rendering the traditional set of standard compounds for SSNMR insufficient or highly inconvenient for shimming and magic-angle calibration. Additionally, the reproducibility of magic angle setting, chemical shift referencing, and probe position can be especially critical for SSNMR experiments at high fields. These conditions suggest the need for a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ¹ H-detection standard compound, which is preferably multi-purpose, to simplify instrument set up for ultra-fast MAS SSNMR instruments at high magnetic fields. In this study, we present the results for setting magic angle and shimming using tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)silane (TTMSS, or TKS), a tetramethylsilane (TMS) analogue, at near 40 kHz and demonstrate that we can achieve favorable results in less time but with equal or superior precision as traditional KBr and adamantane standards. The high SNR and TMS-like chemical shift of TKS also opens the possibilities for using TKS as an internal standard with biological samples. A single rotor containing a four-component mixture of TKS, adamantane, uniformly ¹³ C, ¹⁵ N-labeled N-acetyl valine and KBr was used to perform a complete configuration and calibration of a SSNMR probe without sample changes. We anticipate TKS as a standard compound to be especially effective at very high MAS conditions and to greatly simplify the instrument set up for high and ultra-high field SSNMR instruments.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: [Chad M. Rienstra reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.].
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