DQ-DRENAR with back-to-back (BABA) excitation: Measuring homonuclear dipole-dipole interactions in multiple spin-1/2 systems

A new pulse sequence entitled DQ-DRENAR, (Double-Quantum based Dipolar Recoupling Effects Nuclear Alignment Reduction) was recently described for the quantitative measurement of magnetic dipole-dipole interactions in homonuclear spin-1/2 systems involving multiple nuclei. The double quantum coherences were created via a windowless symmetry-based pulse sequence (POST-C7). The present contribution evaluates the performance of the Back-to-Back excitation pulse scheme BABA-xyl6 in such DRENAR experiments. Using SIMPSON simulations, special attention is given to finite pulse length effects, dipolar truncation, and chemical shift anisotropy interference. Experimental results on model compounds demonstrate good stability up to long mixing times ( > 10 ms) as well as high accuracy. As its dipolar coupling efficiency is relatively high (the dipolar coupling scaling factor is 4.24 times as high as that of POST-C7), DQ-DRENAR-BABA-xy16 is most appropriate for the measurement of relatively weak dipolar coupling strengths ( < 400 Hz). Different from POST-C7, for which the spinning rate is limited to 1/7 of the nutation frequency, DQ-DRENAR-BABA-xy16 experiments can take full advantage of ultrafast MAS experiments. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.