太赫兹时域光谱技术在危险品检测方面的应用

太赫兹波(terahertz, THz, T-ray)是指频率介于0.1～10 THz之间的电磁辐射,在电磁波谱上位于微波和远红外线之间。大多数爆炸物、毒品在此波段有特征吸收。与在公共安全领域检测武器、爆炸物、毒品等危险品的传统方法相比,太赫兹辐射能量低,不会产生电离辐射,也不会引起安全担忧。而且,太赫兹波对于衣物等大多数包装材料有很强的穿透力,对物质的检测可以做到高灵敏、无损伤和远距离,因此在反恐、毒品、安全检测等方面具有显著潜在优势。文章介绍了国内外太赫兹时域光谱技术(terahertz time domain spectroscopy, THz-TDS)在爆炸物及毒品检测方面的研究最新进展;详细讨论了黑索金(RDX)的研究现状,并初步探讨了影响实验结果的几种因素。     

35Cl NQR and2H NMR analysis of the critical dynamics close to the displacive normal-incommensurate phase transition in an organic crystal

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments,³⁵C1 nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) and²H NMR, have been performed close to the displacive normal-incommensurate phase transition in the organic crystal of bis-(4-chlorophenyl)-sulfone. Calculations using coherent neutron scattering results show that the soft-mode contribution cannot explain the rapid increase of the spin-lattice relaxation rates close to the transition temperature. Calculations of the spectral densities taking into account the existence of a central-peak phenomenon describe both³⁵C1 NQR and²H NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates on approaching the phase transition. In this way, the width of the central peak can be estimated to be in the range of several gigahertz.     

A nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy study of mass transport in porous materials

The¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microimaging is employed to study the mass transport processes in porous materials, including individual catalyst support pellets and beds comprised of porous grains. Drying and adsorption are investigated by detecting the temporal evolution of the one-dimensional spatial profiles or two-dimensional maps of liquid content without interrupting the process under study. The characteristic features of these processes, such as the main mechanisms and the limiting stages of mass transport, and some factors which can alter the efficiency of mass transport are considered. The problems associated with the relaxation weighting of the NMR signals, often unavoidable for liquids permeating mesoporous solids, and the possibilities to overcome these problems are discussed.     

Spectroscopic Trends for the Determination of Illicit Drugs in Oral Fluid

Abstract

The present work aims to review all of the articles published so far, focused on the determination of drugs of abuse in oral fluid. This fluid provides a simpler, faster, and more controllable sampling in comparison with the other biological fluids, such as blood or urine. Actually, the main goal of the researchers is to lower the limit of detection (LOD) to detect quantities of drugs smaller than the cut-off limits established by law for drug controls. Advances in Raman, infrared (IR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy applications are discussed. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been shown as the most sensitive technique for the detection of illicit drugs in oral fluid. The use of IR spectroscopy for determining drugs of abuse in oral fluid is growing, although the LODs obtained until now do not yet satisfy the necessities in the forensic field. Finally, NMR spectroscopy has seldom been used to determine drugs in oral fluid. Another future trend seems to be related with the use of portable instrumentation, which would allow us to perform in-situ analysis. This last application seems to be particularly promising to perform roadside drug tests and to identify overdose drugs in patients in emergency conditions.     

Detection of plastic explosives in luggage with14N nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy

Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) of¹⁴N nuclei has many advantages as a method for detecting nitrogen-containing explosives, the most important are very high chemical specificity, true noninvasive operation and detection of bulk explosive in situ only (no vapor or particular capture needed). One of the most high explosives is hexogen (RDX) often used by terrorists in plasticized forms. The ring nitrogen nuclei in an RDX molecule generate three sets of NQR frequencies corresponding to three physically nonequivalent positions of the molecule in the crystal lattice. The prototype device we have constructed is intended for inspection of suitcases for the presence of plastic explosives containing RDX or octogen by¹⁴N quadrupole resonance. It is essentially a fully automated PC-controlled pulsed FT NQR spectrometer equipped with a large volume (70 1) radio-frequency (RF) sample coil to accommodate a typical suitcase. The device consists of a measure chamber with an RF coil, tuning and matching box, an RF pulse transmitter and a control PC with dedicated cards like digital receiver, frequency synthesizer, pulse programmer and probe-tuning controller. The control software finds the NQR lines and measures their frequencies. An alarm is produced if any of these frequencies matches the characteristic NQR frequency of the explosive and the signal-tonoise ratio exceeds the preset threshold. Multipulse sequences of the type SORC (strong off-resonance comb) or SLSE (spin-locked spin echo) were used in order to increase the allowed data acquisition rate. We could detect 230 g of PMW-8, a plastic explosive (containing 81% of RDX) in 10 s or 100 g in 30 s. Detection probability was not less than 90%.     

Development of the Miniature NMR Apparatus for Edible Oil Quality Control

Edible oils are necessary in daily cooking; therefore, it is significantly important to find an efficient scheme for its quality control. In this work, a miniature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus was set up for the identification of edible oils with different qualities. Experimental results show that the total transverse relaxation time of the commercial refined edible oil is shorter than the poor quality edible oil. Further data processing was performed with inverse Laplace transformation for transverse relaxation time distribution analysis. The spectra of the distribution of transverse relaxation times of different qualities edible oils are also significantly different, among which, the refined edible oil has two peaks whereas the poor quality edible oil has three peaks. The experimental results are well agreed with the theoretical analysis. As the miniature NMR apparatus was employed to analyze three suspected illegal cooking oils which were seized at the scene of inspection, the three oils were all confirmed to be poor quality edible oils. The apparatus can also detect refined edible oils adulterated with illegal cooking oils. In conclusion, the presented miniature NMR apparatus could be a potential tool for edible oil quality control.     

Nuclear Quadrupole Interactions in Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Detection of Energetic and Controlled Materials: Theoretical Study

There has been a growing interest in nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) techniques useful for the detection of explosives and drugs in solid state systems. This paper uses the first-principles one-electron Hartree?CFock theoretical method to study the nuclear quadrupole interaction parameters e ² qQ and ?? for the ¹⁴N nuclei in the explosives RDX and ??-HMX as well as the drugs cocaine and heroin. It has been found in our earlier published investigations reviewed here that there is very good agreement for our calculated e ² qQ and ?? for ¹⁴N, for all these four systems, and experiment. We also present our unpublished theoretical results for cocaine with an HCl molecule attached. We successfully explain quantitatively the drastic decrease in e ² qQ in going to cocaine-HCl from cocaine-free base as well as the observed substantial increase in ?? and discuss the implications of these dramatic changes for NQR detection in general.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Waterborne Epoxy–Acrylic Corrosion-Resistant Coatings

Waterborne acrylate (AC) and epoxy–acrylate (EAC), and the ether of melamine formaldehyde (EM) as cross-linker, were synthesized. The structures of AC and EAC were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectroscopy. Their anticorrosive EM-cured AC and EAC coatings (referred to here as AC/EM and EAC/EM, respectively) were applied on mild steel strips and their properties were evaluated by physicomechanical and corrosion resistance tests, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The coating system EAC/EM exhibited superior performance in all aspects of physicomechanical performance, corrosion resistance, and thermal stability when compared with AC/EM.     

Deuterium NMR studies of guest motions in urea inclusion compounds of 1,6-dibromohexane with analytical evaluation of spectra in the fast motion limit

²H NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, in conjunction with X-ray diffraction experiments, was used to characterize the guest motions of 1,6-dibromohexane in its urea inclusion compound. These motions are characterized by alkyl chain jumps between two conformations, each approximately gauche to the terminal bromines, which remain stationary. In this distorted urea channel, one conformer is heavily preferred, but thermally activated population of the unfavorable conformer leads to reversible, temperature-dependent changes in the unit cell parameters. Although rapid motions of the guest chain give rise to ambiguities in the interpretation of the²H NMR spectra, fortuitous temperature-independent spectral features of guests containing deuterium at the α, β and γ positions indicate that the guest motion resembles a two-site jump with unequal probabilities. Analytical lineshape calculations on the three sets of²H NMR spectra indicate a single jump mechanism in which the range of jump angles is narrowly prescribed. This NMR model provided a starting point for successful solution and refinement of the crystal structures at 213 and 298 K, which had been complicated by motional disorder.     

Temperature Dependence of <Superscript>1</Superscript>H and <Superscript>17</Superscript>O NMR Shifts of Water: Entropy Effect

Density functional theory together with statistical thermodynamics based on the equilibrium constants method and concept of orientational entropy were applied to reproduce the temperature dependences of ¹H and ¹⁷O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts in liquid water. Despite a rather simple theoretical model, a satisfactory agreement between calculated NMR quantities and corresponding experimental data was found. By using only a single adjustable parameter of arbitrary directionality, we succeeded to imitate the first-order temperature effect for both (¹H and ¹⁷O) NMR signals in the neat water. ¹H and ¹⁷O magnetic shielding tensors of water molecules in various water clusters have been calculated using the density functional theory. The full geometry optimization was performed using Becke's three-parameter hybrid method and the Lee–Yang–Parr correlation functional (B3LYP) combined with 6-311++G^** basis set. Magnetic shielding tensors have been calculated using the modified hybrid functional of Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof, and the gauge-including atomic orbital approach was applied to ensure gauge invariance of the results. Solvent effects were taken into account by the polarized continuum model. Authors' address: Vytautas Balevicius, Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University, Sauletekio 9, Vilnius 10222, Lithuania     

Hydrophobic polymers modification of mesoporous silica with large pore size for drug release

Mesostructure cellular foam (MCF) materials were modified with hydrophobic polyisoprene (PI) through free radical polymerization in the pores network, and the resulting materials (MCF-PI) were investigated as matrices for drug storage. The successful synthesis of PI inside MCF was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR), X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. It was interesting to find the resultant system held a relatively large pore size (19.5 nm) and pore volume (1.02 cm³ g⁻¹), which would benefit for drug storage. Ibuprofen (IBU) and vancomycin were selected as model drugs and loaded onto unmodified MCF and modified MCF (MCF-PI). The adsorption capacities of these model drugs on MCF-PI were observed increase as compared to that of on pure MCF, due to the trap effects induced by polyisoprene chains inside the pores. The delivery system of MCF-PI was found to be more favorable for the adsorption of IBU (31 wt%, IBU/silica), possibly attributing to the hydrophobic interaction between IBU and PI formed on the internal surface of MCF matrix. The release of drug through the porous network was investigated by measuring uptake and release of IBU.     

Polarization and energy barriers in ferroelectric pyridinium tetrafluoroborate

Measurements of the ¹H and ¹⁹F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) second moments were performed for a polycrystalline sample of (PyH)BF₄, whereas the shape of the ²H NMR line was analysed for a polycrystalline sample of (d₅PyH)BF₄. Asymmetry parameter δ has been calculated for four models of pyridinium cation reorientation among inequivalent potential energy minima, using the experimental value of the ¹H NMR second moment as well as the ²H NMR line width. From knowledge of the potential shape and the population of its minima, the temperature dependence of polarization for all the models has been found. From the comparison of the experimentally determined polarization with the calculated polarization, the most appropriate model of the pyridinium cation reorientation has been chosen.     

Nuclear quadrupole double resonance techniques for the detection of explosives and drugs

Recent work of the Ljubljana group in the nuclear quadrupole double resonance detection of explosives, mines, narcotics and drugs is reviewed with particular emphasis on enhancing low-frequency nuclear quadrupole resonance signals.     

Spatial Structure of the Decapeptide Val-Ile-Lys-Lys-Ser-Thr-Ala-Leu-Leu-Gly in Water and in a Complex with Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Micelles

We have studied the spatial structure of the decapeptide Val-Ile-Lys-Lys-Ser-Thr-Ala-Leu-Leu-Gly in aqueous solution and in a complex with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and two-dimensional (2-D) NMR spectroscopy (total correlation spectroscopy and nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY)). The approach used to determine the decapeptide spatial structure was based on analysis of the ¹H?C¹³C residual dipolar couplings in the molecules partially aligned in lyotropic liquid crystalline media. Analysis of the interproton distances obtained from the 2-D NOESY NMR spectrum was used to reveal the spatial structure of the decapeptide in a complex with SDS micelles. Complex formation was confirmed by analysis of ¹H chemical shifts in the NMR spectrum of the decapeptide and analysis of the signs and values of NOEs in a solution with SDS micelles.     

Electron paramagnetic resonance and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance study of Y-doping effect on the hydrogen shallow donors in ZnO nanoparticles

Hydrogen shallow donors in sol-gel-derived pristine and rare-earth Y-doped ZnO nanoparticles have been investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and high-resolution ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). It is shown by EPR measurements that the energy level of the hydrogen shallow donors in the Y-doped ZnO is much deeper (E ～ 174 meV) than in the pristine ZnO (E ～ 75 meV). The temperature-dependent ¹H NMR chemical shift and linewidth measurements of the pristine and the Y-doped ZnO systems indicated that Y-doping effectively modifies the lattice environment and hinders the hydrogen motions in the ZnO nanoparticles.     

NMR Techniques in Metabolomic Studies: A Quick Overview on Examples of Utilization

Metabolomics is a rapidly developing branch of science that concentrates on identifying biologically active molecules with potential biomarker properties. To define the best biomarkers for diseases, metabolomics uses both models (in vitro, animals) and human, as well as, various techniques such as mass spectroscopy, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, infrared and UV–VIS spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. The last one takes advantage of the magnetic properties of certain nuclei, such as ¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P, ¹⁹F, especially their ability to absorb and emit energy, what is crucial for analyzing samples. Among many spectroscopic NMR techniques not only one-dimensional (1D) techniques are known, but for many years two-dimensional (2D, for example, COSY, DOSY, JRES, HETCORE, HMQS), three-dimensional (3D, DART-MS, HRMAS, HSQC, HMBC) and solid-state NMR have been used. In this paper, authors taking apart fundamental division of nuclear magnetic resonance techniques intend to shown their wide application in metabolomic studies, especially in identifying biomarkers.     

A Superconducting Quantum Interference Device Measurement System for Ultra Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

We describe a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)-based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer operating at ultralow magnetic fields far below the Earth’s field. The spectrometer consists of a helium-cooled magnetic sensor system and two Helmholtz coils, one for pre-polarizing the sample by fields of up to 5 mT, and one for the detection in fields of the nanotesla and microtesla range. The spectrometer represents the current state of the art in ultralow-field NMR and enables the observation of phenomena that are difficult or impossible to achieve by a conventional NMR setting. In particular, one can obtain broad band spectra covering different nuclei, such as ¹H and ³¹P, with a frequency resolution in the millihertz range, observe the variation of their heteronuclear coupling with the detection field strength, and investigate relaxation processes that reflect molecular dynamics in the millisecond range.     

First2H NMR at 58 T

The first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments in pulsed field magnets at fields up to 58 T are reported. The basic features of the pulsed field source and the strategy to observe the first spectra are described. A²H NMR spectrum at 58 T is shown and the first results are discussed.     

Spectral methods for study of the G-protein-coupled receptor rhodopsin. II. Magnetic resonance methods

This article continues our review of spectroscopic studies of G-protein-coupled receptors. Magnetic resonance methods including electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) provide specific structural and dynamical data for the protein in conjunction with optical methods (vibrational, electronic spectroscopy) as discussed in the accompanying article. An additional advantage is the opportunity to explore the receptor proteins in the natural membrane lipid environment. Solid-state ²H and ¹³C NMR methods yield information about both the local structure and dynamics of the cofactor bound to the protein and its light-induced changes. Complementary site-directed spin-labeling studies monitor the structural alterations over larger distances and correspondingly longer time scales. A multiscale reaction mechanism describes how local changes of the retinal cofactor unlock the receptor to initiate large-scale conformational changes of rhodopsin. Activation of the G-protein-coupled receptor involves an ensemble of conformational substates within the rhodopsin manifold that characterize the dynamically active receptor.     

Mobile Low-Field 1H NMR Spectroscopy Desktop Analysis of Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel produced mainly by the base-catalyzed transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats with a short chain alcohol, has become an attractive alternative to petroleum-based diesel fuel. Even though high-field ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a reliable method for biodiesel quality control, it is restricted by its poor mobility and expensive superconducting coils. As an alternative, this study presents a mobile low-field ¹H NMR spectrometer for the analysis of biodiesel samples derived from different feedstock oils. The low-field ¹H NMR spectra of all the compounds coexisting in a typical transesterification reaction such as rapeseed oil, rapeseed biodiesel, methanol, and glycerol, could be clearly differentiated. Field-dependent characteristic parameters such as relaxation times are provided. The degree of saturation of the different biofuels samples could be reliably estimated via integration of the resolved signals of the spectra. The obtained results agreed well with those measured at high-field ¹H NMR. Since this compositional information is directly related to the biodiesel properties, the presented mobile low-field ¹H NMR device built from permanent magnets arrayed in a Halbach geometry, constitutes an excellent alternative tool for biodiesel quality control.