NOESY vs ROESY for Large Molecules.

NOESY experiments work well for molecules of very low and very high molecular weight. They do not work well for molecules with molecular weights of approximately 1000 - 2000 g/mol at typical field strengths, where the NOE's are very close to zero. A ROESY experiment can be used to get NOE information for molecule in this intermediate molecular mass regime. For high molecular weight molecules a NOESY and a ROESY experiment will give very similar results with the exception that the cross peaks will be in phase with respect to the diagonals for a NOESY and 180 degrees out of phase with the diagonals in the case of a ROESY. The figure below shows both a NOESY and a ROESY for gramacidin at 300 MHz The red contours are negative and the black contours are positive.