EVALUATION OF SPIN RELAXATION INDUCED BY CHEMICAL SHIELDING ANISOTROPY - A COMMENT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ANTISYMMETRIC COMPONENT

General comments related to the impact of the antisymmetric component of the electronic shielding tensor in context of nuclear magnetic rela xation studies are given. It is argued that in most conceivable applic ations of high field NMR, the effects associated with the antisymmetri c component will be negligible. However, in certain situations, this c onventional wisdom may fail and, as an extreme example, it is demonstr ated that for highly nonaxially symmetric shieldings, motional anisotr opy may accentuate dramatically the relative importance of the antisym metry. (C) 1997 Academic Press.