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

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