Microfluidic
stripline NMR technology not only allows for NMR experiments
to be performed on small sample volumes in the submicroliter range,
but also experiments can easily be performed in continuous flow because
of the stripline’s favorable geometry. In this study we demonstrate
the possibility of dual-channel operation of a microfluidic stripline
NMR setup showing one- and two-dimensional 1H, 13C and heteronuclear NMR experiments under continuous flow. We performed
experiments on ethyl crotonate and menthol, using three different
types of NMR chips aiming for straightforward microfluidic connectivity.
The detection volumes are approximately 150 and 250 nL, while flow
rates ranging from 0.5 μL/min to 15 μL/min have been employed.
We show that in continuous flow the pulse delay is determined by the
replenishment time of the detector volume, if the sample trajectory
in the magnet toward NMR detector is long enough to polarize the spin
systems. This can considerably speed up quantitative measurement of
samples needing signal averaging. So it can be beneficial to perform
continuous flow measurements in this setup for analysis of, e.g.,
reactive, unstable, or mass-limited compounds.