Adiabatic pulses in 1H-15N direct and long-range heteronuclear correlations

The application of adiabatic inversion pulses to the detection of (1)H-(15)N heteronuclear correlations is described. The pulse sequences studied were gHSQC, CRISIS-gHSQC, gHMBC and CRISIS-gHMBC. The poor inversion quality of rectangular 180 degrees X pulses can lead to a loss of signal at the peripheries of the spectrum. Replacing these pulses with adiabatic sweeps significantly improves sensitivity across the potentially large (15)N spectral window. Satellite spectrum profiles are shown to demonstrate the increase in sensitivity when employing adiabatic pulses on wide spectral widths. Additionally, the active pharmaceutical nizatidine was used as a model compound to demonstrate the improvements in the long-range correlation data.