Application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to Solids: High Resolution Techniques

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has long been a useful technique for the study of solids (1, 2). Within recent years, however, a number of advances have been made both along theoretical and experimental lines which hold promise to expand greatly the utility of nuclear magnetic resonance as an experimental technique for the study of physical and chemical phenomena in solids. Of particular importance are those techniques which are furnishing generally applicable means of measuring chemical shift tensors in solids for the first time. This review has been restricted to a discussion of those developing techniques which, among other possibilities, are allowing high resolution chemical shift tensor measurements in solids. No attempt will be made here for a definitive essay of the theoretical basis of these somewhat complex new techniques, but rather the emphasis will be placed on discussing the nature of the information they allow one to obtain on physical and chemical interactions within solid materials and what the present and future potentials and limitations of the techniques appear to be. Recent efforts in other aspects of solid state NMR have been reviewed (3-12), and the reader is particularly referred to the discussion of sample spinning techniques by Andrew (3), to the summary of theoretical developments in pulsed NMR by Mansfield (4), and to discussions of using NMR for the study of motional effects in solids (5-7) and of surface adsorbed species (8, 9). Additionally, attention is called to the development of more precise techniques for measuring moments of NMR lines by Lowe et al (13) and locating the center of such solid state lines by Kunitomo (14).