Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Abstract

Due to the development of new techniques and further increase of magnetic field strength available for commercial applications, solid-state NMR spectroscopy became a routine method for the characterization of zeolites. As an important advantage, solid-state NMR spectroscopy allows the investigation of the local structure of nuclei in the solids under study. The specific behavior of zeolites often depends on local effects, such as framework defects, the substitution of framework atoms, guest compounds etc. Therefore, solid-state NMR spectroscopy is a widely applied analytical method for delivering structure data, which are complementary to those of diffraction methods suitable for investigating the long-range order. While early solid-state NMR spectroscopic studies often focused on the characterization of the zeolite framework in the as-synthesized and hydrated state, an increasing number of recent works is dealing with the investigation of the framework of dehydrated and calcined zeolites and of surface sites, i.e., on the determination of their concentration, strength, and accessibility. In all these applications, the advantage of solid-state NMR spectroscopy to be a quantitative method is utilized. The present chapter demonstrates the fundamentals, various techniques, and most important applications of solid-state NMR spectroscopy making this method to an important tool of research in zeolite science.