A novel liquid crystalline system for partial alignment of polar organic molecules

A new system for partial alignment of polar organic molecules to measure residual dipolar couplings in NMR consists of a 1:1 or a 2:1 mixture of water and DMSO including 3–13% n-alkylpentaethylene glycol as the surfactant. Temperature and concentration dependence of the alignment system are investigated and, as examples, the 13C, 1H residual dipolar couplings for the amino acid methionine 1 and for an α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone 2 have been obtained and are compared with those obtained from the alignment media consisting of n-alkylpentaethylene glycol, n-alkyl alcohol and water.