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Title: Balancing dipolar and exchange coupling in biradicals to maximize cross effect dynamic nuclear polarization
Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) by the cross effect (CE) has become a game changer for solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The efficiency of CE-DNP depends on the strength of the electron–electron coupling in biradical polarizing agents. Hence, the focus lately has been on designing biradicals with a large net exchange ( J ) and dipolar ( D ) coupling. In this study, we reveal that the crucial factor for CE-DNP is not the large sum, J + D , but rather the relative magnitude of J and D , expressed as the J / D ratio. We show that the mechanistic basis of this interference lies in the isotropic vs. the anisotropic nature of the J and D couplings, respectively. This interference can lead to a small (effective) electron–electron coupling for many orientations even when J + D is large, resulting in non-adiabatic rotor-events. We find that when 0 < | J / D | < 1 the CE-DNP efficiency is attenuated for the majority of orientations, with greater attenuation observed at higher magnetic fields and faster magic-angle spinning (MAS) frequency. The interference effect of J and D coupling introduced in this study can explain why many biradicals with high or comparable J + D still show significantly divergent DNP performances. We debut J / D as a consequential criteria for designing efficient biradicals to robustly perform across a large range of B 0 fields and MAS frequencies.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2004217
NSF-PAR ID:
10284438
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Volume:
22
Issue:
24
ISSN:
1463-9076
Page Range / eLocation ID:
13569 to 13579
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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