Ultrafast 2D NMR on a benchtop spectrometer: Applications and perspectives

•Ultrafast 2D NMR experiments on a 43 MHz benchtop spectrometer•Analytical performance similar to the one of ultrafast 2D NMR at high field•On-flow 2D NMR monitoring of chemical reactions under the fume hood•Rapid screening of food products by UF 2D NMR Benchtop NMR spectrometers are associated with significant resolution losses, as peak overlaps become ubiquitous at low field. 2D spectroscopy offers an appealing solution to this issue. However 2D NMR is associated with long experimental times which are ill-suited for high-throughput applications such as real-time reaction monitoring or rapid screening. The first implementation of ultrafast (UF) 2D NMR on a benchtop spectrometer –including B0 gradients– was recently reported, making it possible to record 2D spectra in a single –or at most a few– scans. In the present review, we investigate the analytical performance of UF 2D NMR at low field (43 MHz) and its application potential in two complementary research fields: real-time reaction monitoring and rapid screening. UF 2D spectroscopy at low field appears to be a powerful complement to existing analytical methods, and paves the way towards a number of developments in the field of spatially-encoded NMR at low field.