31P and 13C chemical shielding tensors in the phosphoenolpyruvate moiety from rotary resonance recoupling 13C and 31P MAS and single crystal 31P NMR

A ³¹P and ¹³C NMR study of powder and single crystal samples of two phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) compounds, the tris-ammonium salt monohydrate (NH₄)₃(PEP)·H₂O (1), and the mono-ammonium-salt (NH₄)(H₂PEP) (2) is presented. The P chemical shielding tensors in 1 are measured by ³¹P single crystal NMR on four minuscule samples and assigned without ambiguity by exploiting the orientation-dependent ³¹P-³¹p dipolar splittings of the resonance lines. The orientation of the ³¹P chemical shielding tensor is discussed in terms of the C_2v — and C₃-type distortions of the phosphate PO₄-coordination sphere. From ¹³C MAS NMR experiments with ³¹P rotary resonance recoupling on polycrystalline powder samples the orientations of the ³¹P chemical shielding tensors in 1 and 2 are obtained, for 1 in very good agreement with the ³¹P single crystal NMR results. Only some of the orientational parameters of the three ¹³C chemical shielding tensors in the PEP moiety of 1 could be derived from ¹³C MAS NMR experiments with ³¹P rotary resonance recoupling.