High-Field NMR Investigations of
Strontium-87 in Environmental Samples
EMSL Project ID
7490
Abstract
Our proposal is to use ultra-high-field NMR spectroscopy to study strontium nuclei in solid samples. Strontium is a quadrupolar nucleus (I = 9/2) with a very low gyromagnetic ratio and low receptivity. To date, a total of three peer reviewed publications include solid state strontium spectra, and all of these publications indicate that strontium has very large quadrupolar coupling constants. Despite these obstacles, preliminary studies from Penn State at 500 MHz have resulted in successful observation of strontium in model compounds, but sensitivity and resolution are poor. The direct and indirect probing of strontium nuclei require the advantages of ultra-high field magnets since (i) the broadening due to quadrupolar interactions scales inversely with the applied magnetic field, (ii) the increase in net magnetization predicted by the Curie law can help alleviate the sensitivity issues with strontium, and (iii) the increase in the Larmor frequency brought about by the use of high-field instruments will minimize or eliminate the effects of acoustic ringing observed in measurements at lower fields. In this research we propose the direct probing of strontium in ionic salts, silicate and phosphate glasses, and zeolites in order to test existing methods at ultra-high field. It is our intention to extend these methods toward studying binding sites selective for strontium in clay minerals and zeolites representative of those in waste exposed soils present in the vadose zone at the Hanford site. The achievement of these goals will certainly require subsequent trips to the EMSL facility and generate a number of peer-reviewed publications.
Project Details
Project type
Capability Research
Start Date
2004-09-01
End Date
2005-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Bowers GM, AS Lipton, and KT Mueller. 2006. "High-field QCPMG NMR of Strontium Nuclei in Natural Minerals." Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 29(1-3):95-103.
D. W. Flaherty, Z. Dohnalek, A. Dohnalkova, B. W. Arey, D. E. McCready, N. Ponnusamy, C. B. Mullins, B. D. Kay, "Reactive Ballistic Deposition of Porous TiO2 Films: Growth and Characterization," J. Phys. Chem. C 2007, 111, 4765-4773
Pilli SP, KL Simmons, JD Holbery, V Shutthanandan, PB Stickler, and LV Smith. 2009. "A Novel Accelerated Moisture Adsorption Test and Characterization." Composites. Part A, Applied science and manufacturing 40(9):1501-1505. doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2009.06.008