Potential and Limitations of 2D 1H–1H Spin-Exchange CRAMPS Experiments to Characterize Structures of Organic Solids

Summary.  A brief overview of our recent results concerning the application of 2D CRAMPS experiments to investigate a wide range of materials is presented. The abilities of the 2D ¹H–¹H spin-exchange technique to characterize the structure of organic solids as well as the limitations resulting from segmental mobility and from undesired coherence transfer are discussed. Basic principles of ¹H NMR line-narrowing and procedures for analysis of the spin-exchange process are introduced. We focused to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of complex spin-exchange process leading to the determination of domain sizes and morphology in heterogeneous multicomponent systems as well as the characterization of clustering of surface hydroxyl groups in polysiloxane networks. Particular attention is devoted to the determination of the ¹H–¹H interatomic distances in the presence of local molecular motion. Finally we discuss limitations of the ¹³C–¹³C correlation mediated by ¹H–¹H spin exchange to obtain structural constraints. The application of Lee-Goldburg cross-polarization to suppress undesired coherence transfer is proposed. Corresponding author. E-mail: brus@imc.cas.cz Received May 28, 2002; accepted (revised) July 1, 2002