Monitoring electron spin fluctuations with paramagnetic relaxation enhancement.

The magnetic interactions between the spin of an unpaired electron and the surrounding nuclear spins can be exploited to gain structural information, to reduce nuclear relaxation times as well as to create nuclear hyperpolarization via dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). A central aspect that determines how these interactions manifest from the point of view of NMR is the timescale of the fluctuations of the magnetic moment of the electron spins. These fluctuations, however, are elusive, particularly when electron relaxation times are short or interactions among electronic spins are strong.

Enhancing the Ion-Size-Based Selectivity of Capacitive Deionization Electrodes.

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging water treatment technology often applied to brackish water desalination and water softening. Typical CDI cells consist of two microporous carbon electrodes sandwiching a dielectric separator, and desalt feedwater flowing through the cell by storing ions in electric double layers (EDLs) within charged micropores. CDI cells have demonstrated size-based ion selectivity wherein smaller hydrated ions are preferentially electrosorbed over larger hydrated ions.