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Tuesday, September 14, 2021

09-14-2021-0345 - Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR)

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a method for studying materials with unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but the spins excited are those of the electrons instead of the atomic nuclei. EPR spectroscopy is particularly useful for studying metal complexes and organic radicals. EPR was first observed in Kazan State University by Soviet physicist Yevgeny Zavoisky in 1944,[1][2] and was developed independently at the same time by Brebis Bleaney at the University of Oxford.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_paramagnetic_resonance 

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)[1][2][3] results from transferring spin polarization from electrons to nuclei, thereby aligning the nuclear spins to the extent that electron spins are aligned. Note that the alignment of electron spins at a given magnetic field and temperature is described by the Boltzmann distribution under the thermal equilibrium. It is also possible that those electrons are aligned to a higher degree of order by other preparations of electron spin order such as: chemical reactions (leading to Chemical-Induced DNP, CIDNP), optical pumping and spin injection. DNP is considered one of several techniques for hyperpolarization. DNP can also be induced using unpaired electrons produced by radiation damage in solids.[4][5]

When electron spin polarization deviates from its thermal equilibrium value, polarization transfers between electrons and nuclei can occur spontaneously through electron-nuclear cross relaxation and/or spin-state mixing among electrons and nuclei. For example, the polarization transfer is spontaneous after a homolysis chemical reaction. On the other hand, when the electron spin system is in a thermal equilibrium, the polarization transfer requires continuous microwave irradiation at a frequency close to the corresponding electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) frequency. In particular, mechanisms for the microwave-driven DNP processes are categorized into the Overhauser effect (OE), the solid-effect (SE), the cross-effect (CE) and thermal-mixing (TM).

The first DNP experiments were performed in the early 1950s at low magnetic fields[6][7] but until recently the technique was of limited applicability for high-frequency, high-field NMR spectroscopy, because of the lack of microwave (or terahertz) sources operating at the appropriate frequency. Today such sources are available as turn-key instruments, making DNP a valuable and indispensable method especially in the field of structure determination by high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy.[8][9][10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_nuclear_polarization

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