2H-DNP-enhanced 2H–13C solid-state NMR correlation spectroscopy

Perdeuteration of biological macromolecules for magic angle spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy can yield high-resolution (2)H-(13)C correlation spectra and the method is therefore of great interest for the structural biology community. Here we demonstrate that the combination of sample deuteration and dynamic nuclear polarization yields resolved (2)H-(13)C correlation spectra with a signal enhancement of epsilon > or = 700 compared to a spectrum recorded with microwaves off and otherwise identical conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first time that (2)H-DNP has been employed to enhance MAS-NMR spectra of a biologically relevant system. The DNP process is studied using several polarizing agents and the technique is applied to obtain (2)H-(13)C correlation spectra of U-[(2)H, (13)C] proline.