The topic of our round-table workshop on September 25, 2025, was The Power of 2D and 3D NMR, aided by good model compounds, for Assigning Structures in a Complex Natural Polymer
Individual structures in a complex plant polymer’s HSQC spectrum are exquisitely revealed via an underutilized 2D-HSQC-TOCSY experiment. Extreme simplification is achieved via 3D-TOCSY-HSQC by isolating an individual structure onto its own plane that perfectly maps onto the full 2D spectrum. Strategic model compounds provide matching data for authenticating peak assignments. A C–C-FLOPSY experiment can trace out extensive carbon networks in fully 13C-labeled biomass materials. Remarkably informative spectra can be generated from solution-state NMR of even unfractionated plant cell wall material, highlighting the unmatched power of NMR for structural characterization of a difficult polymer.
Presented By: John Ralph