pKa determination by 1H NMR spectroscopy - An old methodology revisited

pKa values of acids and protonated bases have an essential impact on organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and material and food sciences. In drug discovery and development, they are of utmost importance for the prediction of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. To date, various methods for the determination of pKa values are available, including UV-spectroscopic, potentiometric, and capillary electrophoretic techniques. An additional option is provided by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The underlying principle is the alteration of chemical shifts of NMR-active nuclei (e.g., 13C and 1H) depending on the protonation state of adjacent acidic or basic sites. When these chemical shifts are plotted against the pH, the inflection point of the resulting sigmoidal curve defines the pKa value. Although pKa determinations by 1H NMR spectroscopy are reported for numerous cases, the potential of this approach is not yet fully evaluated. We therefore revisited this method with a diverse set of test compounds covering a broad range of pKa values (pKa 0.9-13.8) and made a comparison with four commonly used approaches. The methodology revealed excellent correlations (R2 = 0.99 and 0.97) with electropotentiometric and UV spectroscopic methods. Moreover, the comparison with in silico results (Epik and Marvin) also showed high correlations (R2 = 0.92 and 0.94), further confirming the reliability and utility of this approach.