Quantitative solid-state 13C NMR with signal enhancement by multiple cross polarization

A simple new method is presented that yields quantitative solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) C-13 NMR spectra of organic materials with good signal-to-noise ratios. It achieves long (>10 ms) cross polarization (CP) from H-1 without significant magnetization losses due to relaxation and with a moderate duty cycle of the radio-frequency irradiation, by multiple 1-ms CP periods alternating with H-1 spin-lattice relaxation periods that repolarize the protons. The new method incorporates previous techniques that yield less distorted CP/MAS spectra, such as a linear variation (ramp) of the radio-frequency field strength, and it overcomes their main limitation, which is T-1 rho relaxation of the spin-locked H-1 magnetization. The ramp of the radio-frequency field strength and the asymptotic limit of cross polarization makes the spectral intensity quite insensitive to the exact field strengths used. The new multiCP pulse sequence is a drop-in replacement for previous CP methods and produces no additional data-processing burden. Compared to the only reliable quantitative C-13 NMR method for unlabeled solids previously available, namely direct-polarization NMR, the measuring time is reduced by more than a factor of 50, enabling higher-throughput quantitative NMR studies. The new multiCP technique is validated with 14-kHz MAS on amino-acid derivatives, plant matter, a highly aromatic humic acid, and carbon materials made by low-temperature pyrolysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.