15N-13C Dipole Couplings in Smectic Mesophase of a Thermotropic Ionic Liquid.

Unique combination of ionic conductivity and anisotropic physical properties in ionic liquid crystals leads to new dynamic properties exploited in modern technological applications. Structural and dynamics information at atomic level for molecules and ions in mesophases can be obtained by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy through the measurements of dipole-dipole spin couplings. While 13C-1H and 15N-1H dipolar NMR spectra can be routinely acquired in samples with natural isotopic abundance, recording 15N-13C dipolar NMR spectra is challenging because of the unfavourable combination of two rare isotopes. In the present study, an approach to measure 15N-13C dipole-dipole NMR spectra in static liquid crystalline samples with natural abundance is introduced. We demonstrate that well-resolved spectra can be recorded within 10 h of experimental time using a conventional NMR probe and a moderately strong magnetic field. The technique is applied to a thermotropic smectic mesophase formed by an ionic liquid with imidazolium-based organic cation.

Broadband cross-polarization-based heteronuclear dipolar recoupling for structural and dynamic NMR studies of rigid and soft solids.

Dipolar recoupling is an essential part of current solid-state NMR methodology for probing atomic-resolution structure and dynamics in solids and soft matter. Recently described magic-echo amplitude- and phase-modulated cross-polarization heteronuclear recoupling strategy aims at efficient and robust recoupling in the entire range of coupling constants both in rigid and highly dynamic molecules. In the present study, the properties of this recoupling technique are investigated by theoretical analysis, spin-dynamics simulation, and experimentally. The resonance conditions and the efficiency of suppressing the rf field errors are examined and compared to those for other recoupling sequences based on similar principles. The experimental data obtained in a variety of rigid and soft solids illustrate the scope of the method and corroborate the results of analytical and numerical calculations. The technique benefits from the dipolar resolution over a wider range of coupling constants compared to that in other state-of-the-art methods and thus is advantageous in studies of complex solids with a broad range of dynamic processes and molecular mobility degrees.

Chain dynamics of surfactants in mesoporous silica.

Mesostructured porous materials possess unique surface, structural, and bulk properties that lead to important practical applications. By retaining structure-directing species in the product material, mesostructured organic-inorganic composites are obtained which are of broad interest for fundamental studies of confinement effects and surface interaction on structural and dynamic properties of organic molecules. In the present study, solid state dipolar (13)C-(1)H NMR spectroscopy is applied to quantitatively characterize the conformational dynamics of organic surfactants in the mesostructured composite CTAB-MCM41. Such an approach does not require assumptions and adjustable parameters and reflects the changes in conformational dynamics without relying on specific motional models. The conformational dynamics of the surfactant confined in solid hexagonal arrays is compared to that in hexagonal aggregates formed in a concentrated aqueous solution. The study showed that in cylindrical pores of hexagonal mesoporous silica the order parameter gradually decreases towards the end of the chain. The degree of order and the order parameter profile is similar to that observed in hexagonal liquid crystalline phases. However, the mobility of segments close to the head group is more restricted compared to that in the mesophase, as the result of interaction with the solid silica interface.

Sign-sensitive determination of heteronuclear dipolar coupling to spin-1 by selective decoupling.

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study of nuclear magnetic resonance technique for sign-sensitive determination of the dipolar couplings of rare spins-1/2 to spin-1 with a strong quadrupolar interaction. The technique is based on low-power transition-selective single-quantum decoupling of spin-1 in the presence of high-power decoupling of abundant (proton) spins. Single-transition operator formalism is employed to calculate the time evolution of the density matrix in the presence of low-power irradiation of spin-1. Generally, the sign of dipolar coupling is unavailable from intrinsically symmetric shapes of dipolar-coupled spectra. Asymmetric dipolar multiplets, resulted from selective decoupling, reveal both the signs and magnitudes of the heteronuclear dipolar couplings. The approach is used to develop the experimental strategy for sign-sensitive measurements of short- and long-range heteronuclear dipolar couplings in highly ordered anisotropic samples. The technique is demonstrated for (13)C-(2)H and (13)C-(14)N spin pairs and for (13)C-(2)H(2) three-spin system in liquid crystals.

Low rf power high resolution 1H-13C-14N separated local field spectroscopy in lyotropic mesophases.

Efficiency of the proton detected (encoded) (1)H-(13)C-(14)N local field spectroscopy technique at low radiofrequency power is examined when applied to concentrated ionic lyotropic mesophases exhibiting heteronuclear and homonuclear dipolar couplings in kHz range. We demonstrate that highly resolved heteronuclear dipolar spectra can be obtained with limited radiofrequency power corresponding to decoupling B(1) field of 20 kHz and with superior spectral resolution and sensitivity provided by standard solution state probes. To maintain sufficiently large spectral window in indirect dimension, power level alternation scheme for homonuclear decoupling was introduced. In anisotropic mesophases of an ionic surfactant, pair-wise coupling constants in the three-spin system (1)H-(13)C-(14)N were accurately determined. Relative signs of heteronuclear dipolar couplings to nitrogen were obtained employing frequency selective decoupling.

MRI profiles over very wide concentration ranges: application to swelling of a bentonite clay.

In MRI investigation of soils, clays, and rocks, mainly mobile water is detected, similarly to that in biological and medical samples. However, the spin relaxation properties of water in these materials and/or low water concentration may make it difficult to use standard MRI approaches. Despite these limitations, one can combine MRI techniques developed for solid and liquid states and use independent information on relaxation properties of water, interacting with the material of interest, to obtain true images of both water and material content. We present procedures for obtaining such true density maps and demonstrate their use for studying the swelling of bentonite clay by water. A constant time imaging protocol provides 1D mapping of the clay distribution in regions with clay concentration above 10 vol%. T(1) relaxation time imaging is employed to monitor the clay content down to 10(-3) vol%. Data provided by those two approaches are in good agreement in the overlapping range of concentrations. Covering five orders of magnitude of clay concentration, swelling of sodium-exchanged bentonite clays from pre-compacted pellets into a gel phase is followed in detail.

Anisotropic self-diffusion in thermotropic liquid crystals studied by 1H and 2H pulse-field-gradient spin-echo NMR.

The molecular self-diffusion coefficients in nematic and smectic-A thermotropic liquid crystals are measured using stimulated-echo-type 2H and 1H pulse-field-gradient spin-echo nuclear magnetic resonance (PGSE NMR) combined with multiple-pulse dipolar decoupling and slice selection. The temperature dependence of the principal components of the diffusion tensor in the nematic phase follows a simple Arrhenius relationship except in the region of nematic-isotropic phase transition where it reflects, merely, the decrease of the molecular orientational order. The average of the principal diffusion coefficients in the isotropic-nematic phase transition region is close to the diffusion coefficient in the isotropic phase. At the nematic-smectic-A phase transition the diffusion coefficients change continuously. The results in nematic phase are best described in terms of the affine transformation model for diffusion in nematics formed by hard ellipsoids. In the smectic-A phase the data are interpreted using a modified model for diffusion in presence of a periodic potential along the director.

Molecular self-diffusion in a columnar liquid crystalline phase determined by deuterium NMR.

We report translational diffusion coefficients in a columnar phase of a discotic liquid crystal formed by a triphenylene-based compound. The experiments were performed using 2H stimulated-echo-type pulsed-field-gradient spin-echo NMR applied to a chain-deuterated sample. The diffusion coefficients were found in the range of 1x10(-14)-4x10(-14) m2/s, three orders of magnitude lower than in the isotopic phase of the same compound. This, together with the high activation energy obtained in columnar phase, indicates that the diffusion is dominated by solidlike jump processes.

Deuterium stimulated-echo-type PGSE NMR experiments for measuring diffusion: application to a liquid crystal.

The accessibility of molecular self-diffusion coefficients in anisotropic materials, such as liquid crystals or solids, by stimulated-echo-type (2)H PGSE NMR is examined. The amplitude and phase modulation of the signal in the stimulated-echo-type sequence by the static quadrupole coupling during the encoding/decoding delays is suppressed by adjusting the pulse flip angles and the phase cycle. For nuclei that experience both nonnegligible quadrupole and dipole couplings, the application of magic echoes during the evolution periods of stimulated echo is demonstrated as a helpful technique in the case of slow diffusion. These findings are demonstrated by experimental results in the thermotropic liquid crystal of partially deuterated 8CB. The obtained diffusion coefficients are also compared to data obtained by a (1)H homonuclear-decoupling-type PGSE NMR method in the same material.

Magnet design with high B(0) homogeneity for fast-field-cycling NMR applications.

The design, construction, and performance of a low-inductance solenoidal coil with high B(0) homogeneity for fast-field-cycling NMR is presented. It consists of six concentric layers. The conductor width is varied to minimize the B(0) inhomogeneity in the volume of the sample. This is done using an algorithm which takes the real shape of the conductor directly into account. The calculated coil geometry can be manufactured easily using standard computerized numeric control equipment, which keeps the costs low. The coil is liquid cooled and produces a B(0) field of 0.95 T at 800 A. The field inhomogeneity in a cylindrical volume (diameter 5 mm, length 10 mm) is about 10 ppm, and the inductance is 190 microH. Switching times below 200 micros can be achieved. During 6 months of operation the coil has shown good stability and reliability.

Measurement of the principal values of the anisotropic diffusion tensor in an unoriented sample by exploiting the chemical shift anisotropy: (19)F PGSE NMR with homonuclear decoupling.

NMR methods (S. V. Dvinskikh et al., J. Magn. Reson. 142, 102-110 (2000) and S. V. Dvinskikh and I. Furó, J. Magn. Reson. 144, 142-149 (2000)) that combine PGSE with dipolar decoupling are extended to polycrystalline solids and unoriented liquid crystals. Decoupling suppresses dipolar dephasing not only during the gradient pulses but also under signal acquisition so that the detected spectral shape is dominated by the chemical shift tensor of the selected nucleus. The decay of the spectral intensity at different positions in the powder spectrum provides the diffusion coefficient in sample regions with their crystal axes oriented differently with respect to the direction of the field gradient. Hence, one can obtain the principal values of the diffusion tensor. The method is demonstrated by (19)F PGSE NMR with homonuclear decoupling in a lyotropic lamellar liquid crystal.

Combining PGSE NMR with homonuclear dipolar decoupling.

A new robust approach for combining multiple-pulse homonuclear decoupling and PGSE NMR is introduced for accurately measuring molecular diffusion coefficients in systems with nonvanishing static homonuclear dipolar couplings. Homonuclear decoupling suppresses dipolar dephasing during the gradient pulses but its efficiency and scaling factor for the effective gradient vary across the sample because of the large variation of the frequency offset caused by the gradient. The resulting artifacts are reduced by introducing a slice selection scheme. The method is demonstrated by (19)F PGSE NMR experiments in a lyotropic liquid crystal.

13C PGSE NMR experiment with heteronuclear dipolar decoupling to measure diffusion in liquid crystals and solids.

A new PGSE NMR experiment, designed to measure molecular diffusion coefficients in systems with nonvanishing static dipolar coupling, is described. The fast static dipolar dephasing of the single-quantum (13)C coherences is removed by multiple-pulse heteronuclear decoupling. The resulting slow dephasing of the (13)C coherences allows for inserting appropriate gradient pulses into the pulse sequence. The presence of the large magnetic field gradient reduces the efficiency of the decoupling sequences which is compensated for by introducing a scheme of sequential slice selection across the sample. The method is demonstrated by (19)F-decoupled (13)C PGSE NMR experiments in a lyotropic nematic and lamellar liquid crystal.