Recent developments in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance of quadrupolar nuclei and applications to biological systems

Abstract

Recent advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodology and improvements in high-field NMR instrumentation have generated a new wave of research interests in the application of solid-state NMR to the study of quadrupolar nuclei. These developments now permit increasingly complex biological systems to be probed by quadrupolar NMR. In this review I describe a few recent developments in NMR studies of quadrupolar nuclei and demonstrate the potential of solid-state quadrupolar NMR in the study of biological systems. In particular, I discuss the application of solid-state NMR of 17O, 67Zn, 59Co, 23Na, and 39K nuclei with a prognosis for future work.Key words: nuclear magnetic resonance, quadrupole, solid state, biological system.