Fast and Ultrafast Quantitative 2D NMR

Abstract Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) offers great potential for quantitative analysis of metabolic samples, but accurate and precise quantitative analysis is often made difficult by a high degree of spectral overlap. Multi-dimensional NMR offers an interesting alternative, as it provides a much better discrimination of resonances. However, its use for quantitative analysis is limited by its long acquisition duration and its multi-impulsional character. Nevertheless, numerous improvements in the quantitative performance of 2D NMR have been made during the past decade, facilitating a wide range of applications. This review assesses the recent contributions brought to the field of quantitative 2D NMR, and provides a survey of recent studies of metabolic samples using this methodology. The ongoing need for developing and optimizing powerful tools is first examined. It highlights the necessity of reducing the experimental duration, resulting in a fast 2D NMR approach. This methodology is then described, relying on recent applications to metabolic samples. The last section of the chapter describes a more recent approach, ultrafast 2D NMR, which makes it possible to record multi-dimensional spectra in a single scan. The principles and the analytical performances of this novel methodology are described, as well as its perspectives in terms of quantitative analysis.