Spin coherence transfer in chemical transformations monitored by remote detection NMR

We demonstrate a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment using continuous flow in a microfluidic channel for studying the transfer of spin coherence in nonequilibrium chemical processes. We use the principle of remote detection, which involves spatially separated NMR encoding and detection coils. As an example, we provide the map of chemical shift correlations for the amino acid alanine as it transitions from the zwitterionic to the anionic form. The presented method uniquely allows for tracking the migration of encoded spins during the course of any chemical transformation and can provide useful information about reaction mechanisms.