Offset-compensated and zero-quantum suppressed ROESY provides accurate 1 H-1 H distances in small to medium-sized molecules.

A robust version of the off-resonance ROESY pulse scheme is suggested for the measurement of proton-proton distances or slow chemical exchange in small to medium-sized molecules. The method implements adiabatic ramps to establish a pair of opposite frequency off-resonance spin lock fields - with optionally randomized duration - and adiabatic inversion pulses with simultaneous gradients for efficient zero-quantum suppression. The amended pulse sequence yields pure absorption cross-peaks and works safely for small to medium-sized molecules. The applicability of the method has been demonstrated using small, rigid molecules (strychnine and codeine) and was also applied for a cyclic peptide and a small protein. We found that the pure phase cross-peaks of the new ROESY version are beneficial for distance measurements. The one-dimensional (selective) version of the new method is also powerful for measuring selected pair-wise interactions and distance determination.