An Exploration into Dynamic Spin Chemistry: Improving NMR Resolution

By Mohib Ahmed

Nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) is a powerful technique to resolve structural information about molecules. Of particular interest is NMR of proteins, where understanding the structural properties takes an especial importance. However, NMR techniques are limited by resolution. In proteins with potential molar masses in the multiple thousands, resolving NMR data can be difficult. This is where Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) comes in. DNP is a well characterized phenomena where the nuclear magnetic resonance of electrons is enhanced by external polarization of those electrons. In Kaushik et al., 2016, this was achieved on proteins with spin-labeling with Gadolinium (III) and Manganese (II) complexes. In Biedenbänder et. al., 2022, it was shown that dynamic nuclear polarization is a process capable of working on improving resolution of proteins. NV Diamonds have the benefit of effecting general dynamic nuclear polarization without chemically altering the protein. The established method of DNP enhancing proteins, spin labeling, is more targeted, however it does involve chemically altering the proteins. Hence, this project will investigate the effects of NV diamonds on DNP in methanol, with the hopes of justifying its usage in specific protein NMR applications.

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