Nitrogen-Functionalized Hydrothermal Carbon Materials by Using Urotropine as the Nitrogen Precursor.

Nitrogen-containing hydrothermal carbon (N-HTC) materials of spherical particle morphology were prepared by means of hydrothermal synthesis with glucose and urotropine as precursors. The molar ratio of glucose to urotropine has been varied to achieve a continuous increase in nitrogen content. By raising the ratio of urotropine to glucose, a maximal nitrogen fraction of about 19 wt % could be obtained. Decomposition products of both glucose and urotropine react with each other; this opens up a variety of possible reaction pathways. The pH has a pronounced effect on the reaction pathway of the corresponding reaction steps. For the first time, a comprehensive analytical investigation, comprising a multitude of analytical tools and instruments, of a series of nitrogen-containing HTC materials was applied. Functional groups and structural motifs identified were analyzed by means of FTIR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric MS, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Information on reaction mechanisms and structural details were obtained by electronic structure calculations that were compared with vibrational spectra of polyfuran or polypyrrole-like groups, which represent structural motifs occurring in the present samples.

A New Ir-NHC Catalyst for Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange in D2 O.

NMR signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) has been observed for pyridine, methyl nicotinate, N-methylnicotinamide, and nicotinamide in D2 O with the new catalyst [Ir(Cl)(IDEG)(COD)] (IDEG=1,3-bis(3,4,5-tris(diethyleneglycol)benzyl)imidazole-2-ylidene). During the activation and hyperpolarization steps, exclusively D2 O was used, resulting in the first fully biocompatible SABRE system. Hyperpolarized (1) H substrate signals were observed at 42.5 MHz upon pressurizing the solution with parahydrogen at close to the Earth's magnetic field, at concentrations yielding barely detectable thermal signals. Moreover, 42-, 26-, 22-, and 9-fold enhancements were observed for nicotinamide, pyridine, methyl nicotinate, and N-methylnicotinamide, respectively, in conventional 300 MHz studies. This research opens up new opportunities in a field in which SABRE has hitherto primarily been conducted in CD3 OD. This system uses simple hardware, leaves the substrate unaltered, and shows that SABRE is potentially suitable for clinical purposes.

Fundamental aspects of parahydrogen enhanced low-field nuclear magnetic resonance.

We report new phenomena in low-field 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy using parahydrogen induced polarization (PHIP), enabling determination of chemical shift differences, δν, and the scalar coupling constant J. NMR experiments performed with thermal polarization in millitesla magnetic fields do not allow the determination of scalar coupling constants for homonuclear coupled spins in the inverse weak coupling regime (δν