High-resolution capillary tube NMR.: A miniaturized 5-μL high-sensitivity TXI probe for mass-limited samples, off-line LC NMR, and HT NMR

A new triple-resonance (TXI) (H-1, C-13, N-15) high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) capillary probe with 2.5-muL NMR-active sample volume (V-obs) was built and tested for applications with mass- and volume-limited samples and for coupling of microbore liquid chromatography to NMR. This is the first microliter probe with optimized coil geometry for use with individual capillary tubes with an outer diameter of 1 mm. The 900 pulse lengths of the 1-mm microliter probe were below 2 mus for proton, below 8 mus for carbon, and below 20 mus for nitrogen, and a spectral line width at signal half-height below 1 Hz was obtained. Compared to a conventional 5-mm probe, the new 600-MHz 1-mm TXI microliter probe with z-gradient shows an increase in mass sensitivity by a factor of 5, corresponding to a 25-fold reduction in measuring time. The consumption of costly deuterated solvent is reduced by at least 2 orders of magnitude. The 1-mm TXI microliter probe with z-gradient allows the measurement of one-dimensional H-1 NMR and two-dimensional heteronuclear NMR spectra with a few nanomoles (micrograms) of compound with high sensitivity, speed, and quality. This is a breakthrough for discrete sample NMR spectroscopy with paramount importance for structure elucidation in natural compound chemistry and metabolic research. It offers also advantages for linking chromatographic methods to NMR in an industrial environment. Capillary tube NMR may find new applications in areas where high sample throughput is essential, e.g., in the quality control of large sample arrays from parallel chemistry, screening, and compound depositories. It has the potential to increase the sample throughput by 1 order of magnitude or more if new hardware for fast sample handling and exchange becomes available.