Comparison of double-quantum NMR normalization schemes to measure homonuclear dipole-dipole interactions

A recent implementation of a double-quantum (DQ) recoupling solid-state NMR experiment, dubbed DQ-DRENAR, provides a quantitative measure of homonuclear dipole-dipole coupling constants in multispin-1/2 systems. It was claimed to be more robust than another, previously known experiment relying on the recording of point-by-point normalized DQ build-up curves. Focusing on the POST-C7 and BaBa-xy16 DQ pulse sequences, I here present an in-depth comparison of both approaches based upon spin-dynamics simulations, stressing that they are based upon very similar principles and that they are largely equivalent when no imperfections are present. With imperfections, it is found that DQ-DRENAR/POST-C7 does not fully compensate for additional signal dephasing related to chemical shifts (CS) and their anisotropy (CSA), which over-compensates the intrinsic CS(A)-related efficiency loss of the DQ Hamiltonian and leads to an apparent cancellation effect. The simulations further show that the CS(A)-related dephasing in DQ-DRENAR can be removed by another phase cycle step or an improved super-cycled wideband version. Only the latter, or the normalized DQ build-up, are unaffected by CS(A)-related signal loss and yield clean pure dipolar-coupling information subject to unavoidable, pulse sequence specific performance reduction related to higher-order corrections of the dipolar DQ Hamiltonian. The intrinsically super-cycled BaBa-xy16 is shown to exhibit virtually no CS(A) related imperfection terms, but its dipolar performance is somewhat more challenged by CS(A) effects than POST-C7, which can however be compensated when applied at very fast MAS (>50 kHz). Practically, DQ-DRENAR uses a clever phase cycle separation to achieve a significantly shorter experimental time, which can also be beneficially employed in normalized DQ build-up experiments.