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5.4: NOESY Spectra

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    Nuclear Overhauser Effect Spectroscopy, or NOESY, shows through-space interactions within the molecule, rather than the through-bond interactions seen in the other methods. This method is especially useful for determining stereochemical relationships in a molecule. In two stereoisomers, the atoms are all connected in exactly the same order, through exactly the same bonds. A COSY or an HMBC spectrum wouldn't be able to distinguish between these isomers.

    However, in a relatively rigid conformer, one hydrogen in one stereoisomer may be locked on the same side of the molecule as another group. If information could be transmitted from that group to that proton, we would know that they were near each other in space, and we would know which stereoisomer we have. For example, there are three different stereoisomers of lactide. Lactide is a product of the fermentation of corn and soybeans; it can be polymerized to make a sort of brittle plastic, PLA. PLA is used for food packaging because it can be composted in industrial and municipal waste management sites.

    clipboard_e553155c259ab59090fb15789b312d6ba.png

    How would we know which isomer we were dealing with? Telling L-LA and D-LA apart may be difficult. They are enantiomers of each other and so they have the same physical properties. However, provided someone else has already figured out which is which, we could use optical rotation and compare the value we measure to the reported one.

    On the other hand, we could easily tell the rac-LA from either the D-LA or the L-LA, because it would be the diastereomer of either of them. It would have different physical properties, including different NMR spectra. We could carefully compare the spectrum below to reported spectra for rac-LA and L-LA (or D-LA) to see which isomer we have.

    clipboard_ec12fdd3e2005a2b910327f30b0832c93.png

    On the other hand, we could just take a NOESY spectrum. In rac-LA, the methyl on one end of the molecule is on the same face of the ring as the hydrogen on the other end. We may be able to see that through-space relationship. We wouldn't see it in L-LA or D-LA, though.

    clipboard_ed8724a368de9290724e39b9482bd4613.png

    Just like in a COSY spectrum, all of the peaks that show up along the diagonal of a NOESY spectrum are simple the ones we would see in a regular 1H spectrum. The peaks that show up off the diagonal tell us about through-space relationships. In this case, the relationship between the methyl hydrogen and the alpha hydrogen suggest we have a sample of rac-LA.

    ROESY is a similar method that works better in some cases.

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    Draw the relative stereochemistry of this compound based on the NOESY spectrum.

    clipboard_eabb4ef673e6230bf8d760d0630b94382.png

    clipboard_eb0684550604388f8ddedba92c70e42c8.png

    Answer

    clipboard_e115f65a1954962d47b7b4724beb1b062.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)

    Use NOESY to determine which isomer below is present.

    clipboard_eeae5f7bf9014b3fcea176ae1390357e2.png

    clipboard_ef17147d96bca363269b2ebf011fcb3d6.png

    Answer

    clipboard_eb09b142af6ada34bf442f48c13d3641a.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\)

    Acetanilide has two different conformers. They do not easily interconvert.

    clipboard_e01541bd6f2f4596fffe0dbb66c4e5d6b.png

    1. Explain (using pictures) why there isn't free rotation around the amide bond.
    2. Use double headed arrows to predict nOe correlations.
    3. Use the NOESY spectrum to determine which conformer is observed at room temperature.

    clipboard_e38e9dfb3bc14bafb285501d625b8e2bf.png

    Answer
    Answer a

    clipboard_e8f9f0c13c066f1b0e37eca9333383e38.png

    Answer b

    clipboard_e24040690bca999328393858d7f95883f.png

    Answer c

    clipboard_eabd8ea4824122a3821133017f70cfc9b.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)

    a) Complete the table of 1H assignments for the following compound:

    clipboard_e8583ebaac2bb8f709a2a8fac9195d9f3.png

    b) Use the NOESY to assign the relative configuration.

    clipboard_eb276d1ccb91c19168889a2fb661c6ab5.png

    Answer
    Answer b

    clipboard_e5bb2d7eeed288196625b44fe1c4740f1.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)

    Draw the relative stereochemistry of this compound based on the NOESY spectrum.

    clipboard_ee22a2ea0034e93d117782a23b9eefec6.png

    clipboard_ef0c1dfcd75961109d85a5c7662b59461.png

    Answer

    clipboard_e677749b87acd5f607caec90faf92609e.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)

    Dictyosphaeric Acid A is an antimicrobial compound isolated from an undescribed Penicillium sp. in an alga Dictyosphaeria versluyii collected in Fiji.
    (Bugni, Janso, Williamson, Feng, Bernan, Greenstein, Carter, Maiese and Ireland, J. Nat. Prod. 2004, 67, 1396-1399.)

    a) Circle all the chiral centers.

    clipboard_e4230359c3813b5178bd12de58ab4c3a3.png

    The researchers used nOe (ROESY) to determine stereochemical relationships.

    H ROESY
    1 2, 14
    2 1, 3
    3 2
    4  
    5  
    6 8b, 9b
    7a 7b
    7b 7a, 14
    8a  
    8b 6
    9a 10, 15
    9b 6, 10, 15
    10 9a, 9b, 15
    11  
    12  
    13  
    14 1, 7b
    15 9a, 9b, 10

    b) Use the data to put the substituents on this structure with wedges/dashes

    c) Include key nOe correlations with the curved arrows.

     
    Answer
    Answer a

    clipboard_e1132907af51226d308a2550626a3c263.png

    .Answer b

    clipboard_ee861b4de6f1bf97eb06b1810c40a8eab.png

    Answer c
    clipboard_e9a5222cf3a2ca0b4a13f3b09b209f783.png

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)

    Analyse the following data and propose a structure for the compound, formula C10H14O2.

    clipboard_e0a135c93b7319af53fd5961cd114c39f.png

    clipboard_ecf3fc0f66ab1663fa3c46ecc1da8bf11.png

    clipboard_ecc8c74ce62208fe3a11b57e1cee2ec1c.png

    clipboard_e1733d9d0061a8984b239d2538439a85a.png

    Answer

    clipboard_ea80cf78e7ce9bdf8121dc2382f8ff6e8.png

    *Sources:

    Selected IR spectra from SDBS (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, Spectral Database for Organic Compounds, http://sdbs.db.aist.go.jp/sdbs/cgi-bin/cre_index.cgi, accessed December, 2015).

    1H NMR, 13C NMR and NOESY spectra simulated.

    This page titled 5.4: NOESY Spectra is shared under a CC BY-NC 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Chris Schaller via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.