High-Pressure Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Since the mid 90's work at PNNL has focused on the investigation of supercritical fluid solutions using high-pressure nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). There are numerous experimental techniques that have been used to investigate supercritical fluids. These range from FTIR, UV-Visible, fluorescence, ESR, and x-ray spectroscopies. NMR is a technique that has seen limited application to supercritical fluid solvents due to the specialized need for a high pressure, non-magnetic probe and its associated electronics. There have been different successful solutions to a functioning high pressure NMR probe ("A new apparatus for the convenient measurement of NMR spectra in high-pressure liquids", Yonker, C.R.; Zemanian, T.S.; Wallen, S.L.; Linehan, J.C.; Franz, J.A., J Magn Res A 1995, (113):102-107) and each of these probe designs has its own strengths and weaknesses. Overall, NMR is an information-rich spectroscopic technique that can describe the solvent environment about a solute molecule, determine self-diffusion coefficients, ascertain molecular structure, measure hydrogen bonding in solution, and describe molecular clustering as a function of density. NMR can provide important molecular level information about the density dependence of rotational and translational dynamics in supercritical fluid solutions. Similarly, high-pressure kinetics and chemical equilibria can be investigated by the use of NMR.
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In situ laser photolysis in a ultra-high pressure NMR cell