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Updated: May 31, 2026

Atomic Scale Structural Studies of Macromolecular Assemblies by Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Published on: September 17, 2017
1H NMR chemical shift calculations as a probe of supramolecular host-guest geometry
Jeffrey S Mugridge1, Robert G Bergman, Kenneth N Raymond
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-1460, USA.
Abstract:
The self-assembled supramolecular host [Ga(4)L(6)](12-) (1; L = 1,5-bis[2,3-dihydroxybenzamido]naphthalene) can encapsulate cationic guest molecules within its hydrophobic cavity and catalyze the chemical transformations of bound guests. The cavity of host 1 is lined with aromatic naphthalene groups, which create a magnetically shielded interior environment, resulting in upfield shifted (1-3 ppm) NMR resonances for encapsulated guest molecules. Using gauge independent atomic orbital (GIAO) DFT computations, we show that (1)H NMR chemical shifts for guests encapsulated in 1 can be efficiently and accurately calculated and that valuable structural information is obtained by comparing calculated and experimental chemical shifts. The (1)H NMR chemical shift calculations are used to map the magnetic environment of the interior of 1, discriminate between different host-guest geometries, and explain the unexpected downfield chemical shift observed for a particular guest molecule interacting with host 1.
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