Design and applications of water irradiation devoid RF pulses for ultra-high field biomolecular NMR spectroscopy

Water suppression is of paramount importance for many biological and analytical NMR spectroscopy applications. Here, we report the design of a new set of binomial-like radio frequency (RF) pulses that elude water irradiation while exciting or refocusing the remainder of the H-1 spectrum. These pulses were generated using a combination of an evolutionary algorithm and artificial intelligence. They display higher sensitivity relative to classical water suppression schemes and tunable water selectivity to avoid suppressing H-1 resonances near the water signal. The broad bandwidth excitation obtained with these RF pulses makes them suitable for several NMR applications at high and ultra-high-field magnetic fields.