Spontaneous ¹⁵N Nuclear Spin Hyperpolarization in Metal-Free Activation of Parahydrogen by Molecular Tweezers

The ability of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) to activate H₂ is of significant interest for metal-free catalysis. The activation of H₂ is also the key element of parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP), one of the nuclear spin hyperpolarization techniques. It is demonstrated that o-phenylene-based ansa-aminoboranes (AABs) can produce ¹H nuclear spin hyperpolarization through a reversible interaction with parahydrogen at ambient temperatures. Heteronuclei are useful in NMR and MRI as well because they have a broad chemical shift range and long relaxation times and may act as background-free labels. We report spontaneous formation of ¹⁵N hyperpolarization of the N-H site for a family of AABs. The process is efficient at the high magnetic field of an NMR magnet (7 T), and it provides up to 350-fold ¹⁵N signal enhancements. Different hyperpolarization effects are observed with various AAB structures and in a broad temperature range. Spontaneous hyperpolarization, albeit an order of magnitude weaker than that for ¹⁵N, was also observed for ¹¹B nuclei.