Introduction of a dielectric material in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe head modifies the frequency response of the probe circuit, a phenomenon revealed by detuning of the probe. For NMR spectroscopy, this detuning is corrected for by tuning and matching the probe head prior to the NMR measurement. The magnitude of the probe detuning, "the dielectric shift", provides direct access to the dielectric properties of the sample, enabling NMR spectrometers to simultaneously perform both dielectric and NMR spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-pressure nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy finds remarkable applications in catalysis, protein biochemistry and biophysics, analytical chemistry, material science, energy, and environmental control but requires expensive probe heads and/or sample cells. This contribution describes the design, construction, and testing of a low-cost 5 mm NMR tube suitable for high-pressure NMR measurements of up to 30 MPa. The sample cell comprises a standard, 5 mm single-crystal sapphire tube that has been fitted to a section of a relatively inexpensive polyether ether ketone (PEEK) HPLC column.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUpon liquid phase adsorption of C-C primary alcohols on high silica MFI zeolites (Si/Al = 11.5-140), the concentration of adsorbed molecules largely exceeds the concentration of traditional adsorption sites: Brønsted acid and defect sites. Combining quantitative H MAS NMR, qualitative multinuclear NMR and IR spectroscopy, hydrogen bonding of the alcohol function to oxygen atoms of the zeolite siloxane bridges (Si-O-Si) was shown to drive the additional adsorption.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPorous silica is used as a drug delivery agent to improve the bioavailability of sparsely soluble compounds. In this approach, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is commonly loaded into the porous silica by incipient wetness impregnation using organic solvents. Subsequent solvent elimination is critical as the residual solvent concentration cannot exceed threshold values set by health and safety regulations (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA protocol for the detection of trace amounts of quartz in amorphous silica gels by NMR spectroscopy was developed and tested on commercially available samples. Using natural abundance Si MAS NMR spectroscopy with CPMG acquisition and standard addition of crystalline quartz, quantitative detection of quartz concentrations down to 0.1% wt.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZeolites are microporous materials driving industrial scale adsorption, ion exchange, and catalytic processes. Their water content dramatically impacts their properties, but its quantification with Karl Fisher titration or thermal gravimetric analysis is problematic. When standard addition of water is combined with H magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR detection, absolute quantification of water in microporous materials becomes possible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
February 2015
Construction of multibarrier concrete based waste disposal sites and management of alkaline mine drainage water requires cation exchangers combining excellent sorption properties with a high stability and predictable performance in hyper alkaline media. Though highly selective organic cation exchange resins have been developed for most pollutants, they can serve as a growth medium for bacterial proliferation, impairing their long-term stability and introducing unpredictable parameters into the evolution of the system. Zeolites represent a family of inorganic cation exchangers, which naturally occur in hyper alkaline conditions and cannot serve as an electron donor or carbon source for microbial proliferation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe geochemical fate of selenium is of key importance for today's society due to its role as a highly toxic essential micronutrient and as a significant component of high level radioactive waste (HLRW) originating from the operation of nuclear reactors. Understanding and prediction of the long-term behavior of Se in natural environments requires identification of the in situ speciation of selenium. This article describes an XAS-based investigation into the solid phase speciation of Se upon interaction of Se(IV) with Boom Clay, a reducing, complex sediment selected as model host rock for clay-based deep geological disposal of HLRW in Belgium and Europe.
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