Advances in the Interpretation of Frequency-Dependent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurements from Porous Material

Abstract

Fast-field-cycling nuclear magnetic resonance (FFC-NMR) is a powerful technique for non-destructively probing the properties of fluids contained within the pores of porous materials. FFC-NMR measures the spin–lattice relaxation rate R 1 ( f ) as a function of NMR frequency f over the kHz to MHz range. The shape and magnitude of the R 1 ( f ) dispersion curve is exquisitely sensitive to the relative motion of pairs of spins over time scales of picoseconds to microseconds. To extract information on the nano-scale dynamics of spins, it is necessary to identify a model that describes the relative motion of pairs of spins, to translate the model dynamics to a prediction of R 1 ( f ) and then to fit to the experimental dispersion. The principles underpinning one such model, the 3 τ model, are described here. We present a new fitting package using the 3 τ model, called 3TM, that allows users to achieve excellent fits to experimental relaxation rates over the full frequency range to yield five material properties and much additional derived information. 3TM is demonstrated on historic data for mortar and plaster paste samples.