1H-detected double-J-modulated INEPT-INADEQUATE for simultaneous determination of one-bond and long-range carbon-carbon connectivities and the measurement of all carbon-carbon coupling constants

We describe a new NMR experiment, 1H-detected double-J-modulated (DJM)-INEPT-INADEQUATE, for tracing out the carbon skeleton of molecules. This experiment allows simultaneous correlation of directly bonded carbon atoms and those separated by multiple bonds, while at the same time also providing the values of all JCC coupling constants. This is achieved by replacing both fixed carbon-carbon coupling evolution intervals of the INEPT-INADEQUATE experiment by variable time intervals, which are incremented in concert with the DQ evolution period (t1). We show that the analysis of the fine structure of cross-peaks in DJM-INEPT-INADEQUATE spectra leads to accurate values of coupling constants and give guidelines for the proper usage of the method. The proposed experiment is two times less sensitive that the original INEPT-INADEQUATE experiment. We show that, using a 600-MHz cryoprobe and 20 mg of a monosaccharide, spectra that are suitable for the analysis of coupling constants as small as 2 Hz can be obtained within 24 h. Instead of performing multiple experiments, a single DJM-INEPT-INADEQUATE experiment can thus provide a wealth of information for the structural analysis of small molecules.