Hydrodynamic dispersion in $ \beta$ -lactoglobulin gels measured by PGSE NMR

The displacement scale dependent molecular dynamics of solvent water molecules flowing through b \beta -lactoglobulin gels are measured by pulse gradient spin echo (PGSE) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Gels formed under different p H conditions generate structures which are characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PGSE NMR measured dynamics as homogeneous and heterogeneous. The data presented clearly demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical framework for modeling hydrodynamic dispersion to the analysis of protein gels.     

Erratum to: Hydrodynamic dispersion in β-lactoglobulin gels measured by PGSE NMR

The displacement scale dependent molecular dynamics of solvent water molecules flowing through β-lactoglobulin gels are measured by pulse gradient spin echo (PGSE) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Gels formed under different p H conditions generate structures which are characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PGSE NMR measured dynamics as homogeneous and heterogeneous. The data presented clearly demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical framework for modeling hydrodynamic dispersion to the analysis of protein gels.     

Hydrodynamic dispersion in [Formula: see text] -lactoglobulin gels measured by PGSE NMR

The displacement scale dependent molecular dynamics of solvent water molecules flowing through [Formula: see text] -lactoglobulin gels are measured by pulse gradient spin echo (PGSE) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Gels formed under different p H conditions generate structures which are characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PGSE NMR measured dynamics as homogeneous and heterogeneous. The data presented clearly demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical framework for modeling hydrodynamic dispersion to the analysis of protein gels.     

Poly(ethylene glycol) and phospholipid packing in the structure of reverse micelles

The influence of water substitution by a substance with a different polarity on the structure of phospholipid monolayer interface in water-in-oil microemulsion has been studied by the Fourier-transform pulsed-gradient spin-echo (FT PGSE)¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron spin resonance (ESR) spin-label methods. For this purpose the soybean phosphatidylcholine-based microemulsion and water soluble poly(ethylene glycol) with molecular weight 400 (PEG400) were used. Self-diffusion coefficients of all microemulsion components obtained by the FT PGSE NMR technique provided information about both the size of reverse micelles and distribution of components between different microemulsion compartments. The maximum hyperfine splitting, 2A _max, in the ESR spectra was used to characterize the degree of the phospholipid hydrocarbon chain mobility. It was shown that PEG400 alters significantly the size of the reverse micelles and the motion of the labeled segments of the lipid tails. A mechanism of PEG400 acting in solution of the phospholipid-based reverse micelles on the basis of the rough decrease of the micelle core polarity was suggested.     

Evaluation of diffusional anisotropy and microscopic structure in skeletal muscles using magnetic resonance

The pulsed-gradient spin-echo (PGSE) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method is used for detecting the diffusion of water molecules in biological tissues. Because tissues generally have diffusional anisotropy, their diffusion properties are denoted by a tensor. In this study, we evaluated the diffusional anisotropy and microscopic structure in atrophied skeletal muscles using the PGSE NMR method. The left sciatic nerve was severed in twelve 9-week-old rats. Neurotomy caused neurogenic muscular atrophy at the left gastrocnemius. At 2, 4 and 8 weeks after neurotomy, magnetic resonance signals were selectively acquired from a 2 x 2 x 2 mm(3) voxel, which was located on the left gastrocnemius. The diffusion tensor, the mean diffusivity (MD) and the fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated from the signals. A theoretical model of the diffusion in muscles was derived from Tanner's equation. The muscle fiber diameter was estimated by fitting the model to the measured signals. The measurements were also performed for normal rats as controls. No significant difference was found in the MD and the estimated intracellular diffusion coefficient between the control group and the denervated group. The denervated group had significantly higher FA compared with the control group (P<.05). The estimated muscle fiber diameter of the denervated group was significantly smaller than the estimated value of the control group (P<.05). These differences were found at 8 weeks after neurotomy. The proposed method is effective for evaluating changes in the microscopic structure of skeletal muscles.     

Estimation of pore size in a microstructure phantom using the optimised gradient waveform diffusion weighted NMR sequence

There has been increasing interest in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques that are sensitive to diffusion of molecules containing NMR visible nuclei for the estimation of microstructure parameters. A microstructure parameter of particular interest is pore radius distribution. A recent in silico study optimised the shape of the gradient waveform in diffusion weighted spin-echo experiments for estimating pore size. The study demonstrated that optimised gradient waveform (GEN) protocols improve pore radius estimates compared to optimised pulse gradient spin-echo (PGSE) protocols, particularly at shorter length scales. This study assesses the feasibility of implementing GEN protocols on a small bore 9.4 T scanner and verifies their additional sensitivity to pore radius. We implement GEN and PGSE protocols optimised for pore radii of 1, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10 μm and constrained to maximum gradient strengths of 40, 80, 200 mT m(-1). We construct microstructure phantoms, which have a single pore radius for each phantom, using microcapillary fibres. The measured signal shows good agreement with simulated signal, strongly indicating that the GEN waveforms can be implemented on a 9.4 T system. We also demonstrate that GEN protocols provide improved sensitivity to the smaller pore radii when compared to optimised PGSE protocols, particularly at the lower gradient amplitudes investigated in this study. Our results suggest that this improved sensitivity of GEN protocols would be reflected in clinical scenarios.     

Simultaneous Identification and Quantitative Determination of Amino Acids in Mixture by NMR Spectroscopy Using Chemometric Resolution

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy receives increasing interest in biological and metabolomic studies. It is still, however, a great challenge to analyze the NMR spectra of multicomponent samples, containing overlapping responses of the compositions. In this work, nonnegative independent component analysis (nonnegative ICA) and immune algorithm (IA) were employed for simultaneous identification and quantitative determination of three amino acids in mixture samples from measured multicomponent NMR signals. Results show that the correlation coefficients (R) between the extracted and measured spectra are higher than 0.97 and that those between the calculated relative contents and experimental ones are higher than 0.99. The method may provide an alternative technique for analyzing multicomponent samples like biofluids by using NMR spectroscopy.     

X-Band ESR and51V NMR study of the Haldane system PbNi2−xMgxV2O8

The temperature and angular dependence of the X-band electron spin resonance (ESR) and⁵¹V nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra have been measured in a recently discovered Haldenegap system, PbNi_2-xMg_xV₂O₈ (0≤x≤0.24). The angular dependence of the ESR signal suggests that both the spin diffusion as well as the magnetic anisotropy determine the electronic spin correlation functions. However, in doped samples the magnetic anisotropy increasingly dominates the spin dynamics on cooling. The huge broadening of the⁵¹V NMR spectra in doped samples at low temperatures provides evidence for localized magnetic moments in the vicinity of the Mg impurities. Locally distorted structure around each Mg impurity may slightly modify the magnetic interactions and be potentially responsible for the antiferromagnetic ordering (belowT _N≈ 3.5K) in doped compositions.     

NMR Study of Water Distribution inside Tomato Cells: Effects of Water Stress

Tomato pericarp tissue was studied by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. Two kinds of experiments were performed to investigate the correlation between multi-exponential NMR relaxation and the subcellular compartments. The longitudinal (T ₁) versus transverse (T ₂) relaxation times were first measured on fresh samples and then the transverse relaxation time was measured on samples exposed to water stress. Four signal components were found in all experiments. The results showed that all signal components corresponded to the water in different cell compartments, and that no signal from non-exchangeable protons was present. Moreover, we demonstrated that NMR relaxation is suitable for the continuous monitoring of water rebalancing between subcellular compartments of plant tissues.     

Dynamic NMR investigation of plastic crystals in bulk and confined in porous materials

In this work, the molecular dynamics of four organic compounds confined in silica pores of nominal diameter 6 and 20 nm are studied by high-field (9.4 T) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and the results are discussed with reference to the bulk substances. By using organic compounds forming soft plastic crystals on freezing as adsorbates, damage to the pore structures can be avoided. NMR lineshapes, spin-lattice relaxation times (T ₁), spin-spin relaxation timesT ₂ and diffusivities are reported as a function of temperature. Since the porous grains are much greater than the distance travelled by the molecules during the experiment, intracrystalline NMR parameters were obtained. However, the shortT ₂ (∼1 ms) encountered in both the bulk and confined samples prohibited measurements ofT ₂ and the diffusivity in the low-temperature ordered phases. The confinement in the pores gives rise to substantial changes in the phase behavior and molecular dynamics. Thus, the¹H lineshape observations of the confined samples clearly reveal a narrow-line component superimposed on a broad resonance at temperatures well below the transition point of the bulk material. In the freezing region, the narrow-line component is attributed to the surface layer and the undercooled liquid in the smaller pores that remains unfrozen. In the two-component, low-temperature region, the narrow component corresponds to the surface layer, while the broad component originates from the crystalline phase at the center of the pores.     

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.     

The NMR line shape of a gas of hydrogen molecules in nanopores

We consider a closed nanopore filled with hydrogen gas in an external magnetic field. Only hydrogen molecules with spin I = 1 contribute to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin dynamics. Rapid molecular diffusion leads to partial averaging of dipole-dipole interactions (DDI) of spins I = 1 of different molecules. A method for the calculation of the NMR line shape of a hydrogen gas in nanopores is developed. Significant technical difficulties in calculations of the NMR line shape of the system of spins I = 1 coupled by DDI can be overcome with the introduction of a self-interaction with an averaged DDI coupling constant. The accuracy of this procedure is proportional to , where N is the number of hydrogen molecules in the nanocavity. In this approximation the NMR line is Gaussian. The second and fourth moments of the NMR line shape are calculated both from the known line shape and with the Van Vleck theory. They coincide up to the terms of the order of 1/N. The obtained results are in good agreement with experimental data for thin films with ellipsoidal nanopores. The developed theory allows one to extract information about sizes, shapes and orientations of nanopores in solids.     

NMR Crystallography as a Novel Tool for the Understanding of the Mode of Action of Enzymes: SOD a Case Study

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) crystallography is an approach for revealing molecular and supramolecular structures and molecular packing for systems where standard X-ray crystallography gives no results. It combines solid-state NMR techniques with chemical models and/or molecular dynamics and/or quantum chemical calculations. These techniques are often supported by other structure characterization methods. In the present review, recent results on the application of NMR crystallography for the investigation of the mode of action of superoxide dismutases are discussed. Studies of substrate–inhibitor complexes of human manganese and Streptomyces nickel superoxide dismutase are presented, which are chemical models of the transient enzyme–substrate complex. The review is completed by new, previously unpublished results, calculating an NMR structure of NiSOD model peptide-bound cyanide based on experimental restraints measured by us and derived from the literature and extended DFT calculations.     

Removal of J-coupling peak distortion in PGSE experiments

Peak distortion caused by homonuclear J-coupling is a major problem that limits the utility of the pulsed-field gradient spin–echo (PGSE) method for studying translational diffusion. This unwanted effect can be removed by incorporation of anti-phase magnetization purging pulse elements at the end of the spin–echo sequence. Three methods, namely, trim-pulse, homospoil pulse gradient and chirp based z-filter were evaluated as potential candidates for an improved NMR diffusion method that is less sensitive to J-coupling peak distortion. The chirp based z-filter was found to be excellent in suppressing anti-phase magnetization while leaving the in-phase magnetization basically intact in spin–echo and stimulated-echo based experiments. The incorporation of chirp based z-filter into PGSE could allow diffusion analysis that would otherwise be impossible by conventional means.     

Purpose-designed probes and their applications for dynamic NMR microscopy in an electromagnet.

The electromagnet provides a favorable environment for certain applications of NMR microscopy. These include plant imaging experiments and measurements of slow molecular diffusion, where high magnetic field gradients for the pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) technique are required. In this paper, two probes designed specifically for these two applications are described. In the first case, the open space within the probe has been maximized in order to incorporate environmental support systems for the plant, while in the second the smallest possible PGSE gradient coil former has been used to maximize the gradient strength. Examples are given of Dynamic NMR Microscopy experiments on a castor bean stem and on poly(ethylene oxide)/water solutions under shear thinning conditions.     

Interaction of two magnetic resonance modes in the polar phase of superfluid <Superscript>3</Superscript>He

We report results of low frequency nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments in the superfluid polar phase of ³He, which is stabilized by a new type of “nematic” aerogel—nafen. We have found that an interaction between transverse and longitudinal NMR modes may essentially influence the spin dynamics. Theoretical formulas for NMR resonant frequencies are derived and applied for interpretation of the experimental results.     

Water-filled MCM-41 characterized by double-quantum-filtered2H NMR spectral analysis

The dynamics of water molecules confined in adsorbed layers of siliceous MCM-41 with a pore diameter of 2.8 nm is investigated at 230 K by deuteron nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation studies including line shapes of theT ₁ process and double quantum filtered (DQF) spectral analyses.²H DQF NMR is a particularly sensitive tool for the determination of the adsorbate dynamics resulting from residual quadrupolar interaction due to the local order. The amount of monolayer water is determined. The monolayer water is composed of two different water components characterized by water, with isotropic reorientational motions, exchanging with water displaying a solid-like spectrum with 4 kHz edge splitting. One may expect that the latter water is situated on surface sites in MCM-41. The restricted wobbling motion of the D-O bond is used to describe its dynamics which is one order of magnitude slower than the isotropic reorientational motion. The order parameter, the motional correlation time, and the exchange rate thus determined provide useful information on the structure and the adsorptive properties of the mesoporous system.     

Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Relaxometry as a Tool in Monitoring the Aging of Coating Solutions (Case Study: Barium Propionate Precursor Coating Solution)

In the present study, we investigate the relationship between the aging of a barium coating solution used in the synthesis of the precursors for YBa₂Cu₃O_7−x -coated conductors or any oxide compound containing BaO and the transverse relaxation time measured in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment. The barium propionate precursor solution sample was prepared by the stepwise addition of an excess of propionic acid and ammonia to a barium acetate dispersion in methanol. All NMR relaxation experiments were performed at 20°C and a proton resonance frequency of 20 MHz. The experimental results are compared with a proposed model that assumes the reduction of the relaxation centers during the aging process. The model allows us the extraction of a characteristic aging time for the monitored sample.     

Multinuclear NMR Study of Structure and Mobility in Cyclic Model Lithium Conducting Systems

The transport of the lithium ions is the basis of lithium ion conductivity of currently used electrolytes. Understanding how the transport of lithium ions within the matrix is influenced by the interactions with solvating moieties is needed to improve their performance. Along these lines well-defined model compounds based on cyclotriphosphazene (CTP) and hexaphenylbenzene (HPB) cores, bearing side groups of ethylene carbonate, a common solvent for lithium salts used as electrolytes in Li-ion batteries (Thielen et al. Chem. Mater, 23, 2120, 2011) and blended with different amounts of Lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (LiTFSI) have been studied by multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The local dynamics of the matrix was probed by ¹H and ³¹P NMR, while the local dynamics of the Li⁺ cations was unraveled by ⁷Li and ¹³C NMR. Transport of both ions was studied by pulsed-field gradient (PFG) NMR. Based on the different temperature dependences of the dynamics the bulk ion transport is not attributed to local dynamics, but to translational diffusion best characterized by PFG NMR. Although the glass transition temperatures of the blends are low, their conductivities are only in the range of typical polymer electrolytes. The results of NMR spectroscopy are in accord with the conjecture that the coordination between the cyclic carbonate functionality and the Li⁺-ion is too tight to allow for fast ion dynamics.     

NMR in 55Mn2+ nuclei in the quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic CsMnBr3

The NMR spectrum of the quasi-one-dimensional easy-plane antiferromagnetic CsMnBr₃, which has trigonal spin lattice, is investigated in detail. The measurements were performed on a wide-band NMR decimeter microwave-band spectrometer over a wide range of magnetic fields at temperatures 1.3–4.2 K. All three branches of the NMR spectrum previously found by us [JETP Lett. 64, 225 (1996)] are severely distorted because of the dynamic interaction with the Goldstone mode in the antiferromagnetic resonance spectrum. The experimental results in fields up to 40 kOe are described satisfactorily by an equation obtained by Zaliznyak et al. [JETP Lett. 64, 473 (1996)]. Formulas are obtained in our work that agree very well with experiment at all fields up to the “collapse” field H _c of all sublattices. The unbiased NMR frequency in CsMnBr₃ is determined to be v _n0=416 MHz (T=1.3 K) in zero external magnetic field, and in this way the reduction in the spontaneous moment due to the quasi-one-dimensional nature of the system of Mn²⁺ spins, which according to our data amounts to 28%, is determined more accurately. The field dependences of the directions of the magnetic sublattices with respect to the magnetic field are obtained from the NMR spectra, confirming the equations of Chubukov [J. Phys. Condens. Matter 21, 441 (1988)]. The results on the field dependence of the width and intensities of the NMR lines are discussed, along with three observed anomalies: 1) a strong increase in the NMR frequency for nuclei in sublattices that are perpendicular to the magnetic field; 2) the nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the resonance field for the lower branch of the spectrum; 3) the presence of two branches of the NMR spectrum in large H _c fields, in which the CsMnBr₃ must be a quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 352–368 (January 1998) Deceased.