NMR crystallography: the use of chemical shifts

Abstract

Measurements of chemical shifts obtained from magic-angle spinning NMR spectra (together with quantum mechanical computations of shielding) can provide valuable information on crystallography. Examples are given of the determination of crystallographic asymmetric units, of molecular symmetry in the solid-state environment, and of crystallographic space group assignment. Measurements of full tensor components for (199)Ha have given additional coordination information. The nature of intermolecular hydrogen bonding in cortisone acetate polymorphs and solvates is obtained from chemical shift information, also involving measurement of the full tensor parameters. The resulting data have been used as restraints, built into the computation algorithm, in the analysis of powder diffraction patterns to give full crystal structures. A combination of quantum mechanical computation of shielding and measurement of proton chemical shifts (obtained by high-speed MAS) leads to the determination of the position of a proton in an intermolecular hydrogen bond. A recently-developed computer program specifically based on crystallographic repetition has been shown to give acceptable results. Moreover, NMR chemical shifts can distinguish between static and dynamic disorder in crystalline materials and can be used to determine modes and rates of molecular exchange motion.