Determination of deuterium isotope ratios by quantitative 2H NMR spectroscopy:: the ERETIC method as a generic reference signal

A generic method is described that minimizes the acquisition time required for the determination of the (D/H)(i) ratios of all the resolved chemical sites of a molecule by quantitative H-2 NMR. The method relies on the use as the reference of an electronically generated signal (ER-ETIC) that is calibrated from an acquisition with a greatly reduced number of scans. The measurement of the (D/H)(i) ratios can then be performed on spectra obtained with a reduced repetition time. In the case of the molecules studied in this work (derivatives of long chain fatty acids), the total acquisition time was divided by 3.4 without loss of precision.