New NMR developments for structural investigation of proton-bearing materials at different length scales

Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool to characterize the coordination sphere of the selectively observed nucleus in crystalline or amorphous materials. Recent developments of high-resolution NMR techniques for proton in the solid state open the way to obtaining a more accurate description of the structure of proton-bearing materials at different length scales. This can be achieved through the combined use of Lee-Goldburg homonuclear proton decoupling and proton spin-diffusion. In that scope we describe a new 3D experiment that allows direct probing of proton spin-diffusion process between resolved proton spectra obtained under homonuclear decoupling. We anticipate that this class of experiments will soon be used to study poorly crystalline hybrid materials as well as finely divided or porous inorganic materials. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.