A series of homoleptic rare-earth silazido compounds and their silica-grafted derivatives were prepared to compare spectroscopic and catalytic features under homogeneous and interfacial conditions. Trivalent tris-(silazido) compounds Ln{N(SiHMe 2 )tBu} 3 (Ln = Sc (1), Y (2), Lu (3)) are prepared in high yield by salt metathesis reactions. Solution-phase and solid-state characterization of 1− 3 by NMR and IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction reveals Ln↼H−Si interactions. These features are retained in solventcoordinated 2·Et 2 O, 2·THF, and 3·THF. The change in spectroscopic features characterizing the secondary interactions (ν SiH , 1 J SiH ) from the unactivated SiH in the silazane HN(SiHMe 2 )tBu follows the trend 3 > 2 > 1 ≈ 2·Et 2 O > 2·THF ≈ 3· THF. Ligand lability follows the same pattern, with Et 2 O readily dissociating from 2·Et 2 O while THF is displaced only during surface grafting reactions. 1 and 2·THF graft onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) to give Ln{N(SiHMe 2 )tBu} n @MSN (Ln = Sc (1@MSN), Y (2@MSN)) along with THF and protonated silazido as HN(SiHMe 2 )tBu and H 2 NtBu. The surface species are characterized by multinuclear and multidimensional solid-state (SS) NMR spectroscopic techniques, as well as diffuse reflectance FTIR, elemental analysis, and reaction stoichiometry. A key 1 J SiH SSNMR measurement reveals that the grafted sites most closely resemble Ln·THF adducts, suggesting that siloxane coordination occurs in grafted compounds. These species catalyze the hydroamination/bicyclization of aminodialkenes, and both solution-phase and interfacial conditions provide the bicyclized product with equivalent cis:trans ratios. Similar diastereoselectivities mediated by catalytic sites under the two conditions suggest similar effective environments.

We utilize direct 17O DNP for the characterization of non-protonated oxygens in heterogeneous catalysts. The optimal sample preparation and population transfer approach for 17O direct DNP experiments performed on silica surfaces is determined and applied to the characterization of Zr- and Y-based mesoporous silica-supported single-site catalysts.

Many transition metals commonly encountered in inorganic materials and organometallic compounds possess NMR-active nuclei with very low gyromagnetic ratios (γ) such as Y,Rh, Ag, andW. A low-γ leads to poor NMR sensitivity and other experimental challenges. Consequently, nuclei with low-γ are often impossible to study with conventional solid-state NMR methods. Here, we combine fast magic angle spinning (MAS) and proton detection to enhance the sensitivity of solid-state NMR experiments with very low-γ nuclei by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Coherence transfer between H and low-γ nuclei was performed with low-power double quantum (DQ) or zero quantum (ZQ) cross-polarization (CP) or dipolar refocused insensitive nuclei enhanced by polarization transfer (D-RINEPT). Comparison of the absolute sensitivity of CP NMR experiments performed with proton detection with 1.3 mm rotors and direct detection with 4 mm rotors shows that proton detection with a 1.3 mm rotor provides a significant boost in absolute sensitivity, while requiring approximately 1/40 of the material required to fill a 4 mm rotor. Fast MAS and proton detection were applied to obtain Y andRh solid-state NMR spectra of organometallic complexes. These results demonstrate that proton detection and fast MAS represents a general approach to enable and accelerate solid-state NMR experiments with very low-γ nuclei.