SQSQh: (1)H-detected SQ-SQ experiment for determination of signed silicon-carbon coupling constants.

A new variant of SQ-SQ pulse sequence (SQSQh) for relative sign determination and detection of small silicon-carbon couplings over more than one bond is presented. In the SQSQh sequence, proton detection replaces carbon detection used in the original SQ-SQ pulse sequence (SQSQc). The theoretical gain in sensitivity was experimentally tested on two samples (trimethylsiloxyethane, 1, and 1,2,4-tris(trimethylsiloxy)benzene, 2), the experimentally found gain provided by the SQSQh over the SQSQc method varied between 6 and 8. The method can be applied to linear spin systems, i.e. to systems where the silicon is coupled to the carbon in question and to any hydrogen not necessarily bonded to the carbon.