Enhancing the sensitivity of multidimensional NMR experiments by using triply-compensated π pulses

In multidimensional solution NMR experiments, π pulses are used extensively for inversion and refocusing operations on ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N nuclei. Pulse miscalibration, off-resonance effects, and J-coupling evolution during π pulse execution result in severe signal losses that are exacerbated at high magnetic fields. Here, we report the implementation of a triply-compensated π pulse (G5) optimized for both inversion and refocusing in widely used 2- and 3-dimensional experiments. By replacing most of the hard π pulses, adiabatic or composite pulses on the ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁵N channels with G5 pulses, we obtained signal enhancements ranging from 80 to 240%. We anticipate that triply-compensated pulses will be crucial for improving the performance of multidimensional and multinuclear pulse sequences at ultra-high fields.