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Top > Applications
Within applications of relaxometry, protein applications require the most high resolution and sensitivity. Due to the value range of relaxation parameters of biomolecular systems, in addition to the demand for high resolution, a rapid field switch is essential.
In addition to protein dynamics investigation, relaxivity measurement on contrast agents is also a hot topic in NMR relaxometry studies. Relaxivity measurement is also a field-dependent relaxation measurement but observing on the solvent side. Its important application as contrast agents in MRI. The agents perturb the relaxation mechanism in water to increase the imaging contrast in the region of interest.
In the field of soil chemistry and environmental chemistry, field-cycling NMR relaxometry has not yet been a well-recognized approach. Hence, Prof. Conte has shared two of his works to introduce the capability of field-cycling NMR in applications of soil chemistry and environmental chemistry. For scientists who are interested in environmental science, relaxometry can explore more and open different windows of molecular dynamics in soil chemistry.
Ever since the early days of field-cycling NMR, the dynamics of molecules in the liquid or the solid state have been at the center of interest; even more, combination of both phases such as the motion of molecules on solid surfaces ask for the versatility of measuring the longitudinal relaxation time as a function of magnetic field strength. “Molecular dynamics” in this sense covers two different aspects: the statistics of rotational and translational motion of small molecules that are assumed as rigid, and the consequences of internal motion on the overall mobility in larger molecules such as polymers.
Yonghong Ding, Alexey S. Kiryutin, Alexandra V. Yurkovskaya, Denis V. Sosnovsky, Renad Z. Sagdeev, Saskia Bannister, Tilman Kottke, Rajiv K. Kar, Igor Schapiro, Konstantin L. Ivanov & Joerg Matysik
Scientific Reports 9, 18436 (2019)
CIDNP (Chemical Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization) is a high-sensitivity method for photochemical reactions investigation and radical studies. This manner is also able to apply to protein dynamics investigation, such as protein folding. Studies of CIDNP in weak magnetic fields even give additional information on radical reaction mechanisms and on exchange processes.
Studies of low magnetic field photo-CIDNP require two mechanical breakthroughs, one is a lumination unit, the other is a switcher of magnetic fields. The Lumination unit was developed by using a specific wavelength laser and a light guide to the NMR tube. Nowadays, the lumination unit was alternatively performed by Light-emission diodes (LED) instead of laser lumination. As for the switcher of magnetic fields, one can imply field-cycler to carry the sample to the low-field where the lumination unit is located.
More applications and discussions are in Field Cycling Communication. Field Cycling Communication is a free column for sharing news and pieces of literature related to the field-cycling technique and its applications. It is edited and owned by Field Cycling Technology Ltd. We are welcome that researchers share their experiences or results on this platform. We also invite some pioneers to share their experiences with their researches.