¹H-²H cross-polarization NMR in fast spinning solids by adiabatic sweeps

Cross-polarization (CP) experiments employing frequency-swept radiofrequency (rf) pulses have been successfully used in static spin systems for obtaining broadband signal enhancements. These experiments have been recently extended to heteronuclear I, S = spin-1/2 nuclides under magic-angle spinning (MAS), by applying adiabatic inversion pulses along the S (low-γ) channel while simultaneously applying a conventional spin-locking pulse on the I-channel (¹H). This study explores an extension of this adiabatic frequency sweep concept to quadrupolar nuclei, focusing on CP from ¹H (I = 1/2) to ²H spins (S = 1) undergoing fast MAS (ν_r = 60 kHz). A number of new features emerge, including zero- and double-quantum polarization transfer phenomena that depend on the frequency offsets of the swept pulses, the rf pulse powers, and the MAS spinning rate. An additional mechanism found operational in the ¹H-²H CP case that was absent in the spin-1/2 counterpart, concerns the onset of a pseudo-static zero-quantum CP mode, driven by a quadrupole-modulated rf/dipolar recoupling term arising under the action of MAS. The best CP conditions found at these fast spinning rates correspond to double-quantum transfers, involving weak ²H rf field strengths. At these easily attainable (ca. 10 kHz) rf field conditions, adiabatic level-crossings among the {|1⟩,|0⟩,|-1⟩} m_S energy levels, which are known to complicate the CP MAS of quadrupolar nuclei, are avoided. Moreover, the CP line shapes generated in this manner are very close to the ideal ²H MAS spectral line shapes, facilitating the extraction of quadrupolar coupling parameters. All these features were corroborated with experiments on model compounds and justified using numerical simulations and average Hamiltonian theory models. Potential applications of these new phenomena, as well as extensions to higher spins S, are briefly discussed.