Properties and applications of high surface area materials depend on interfacial phenomena, including diffusion, sorption, dissolution, solvation, surface reactions, catalysis, and phase transitions. Among the physicochemical methods that give useful information regarding these complex phenomena, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the most universal, yielding detailed structural data regarding molecules, solids, and interfaces. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Interfacial Phenomena summarizes NMR research results collected over the past three decades for a wide range of materials—from nanomaterials and nanocomposites to biomaterials, cells, tissues, and seeds.

This book describes the applications of important new NMR spectroscopic methods to a variety of useful materials and compares them with results from other techniques such as adsorption, differential scanning calorimetry, thermally stimulated depolarization current, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and small-angle and wide-angle x-ray scattering. The text explores the application of NMR spectroscopy to examine interfacial phenomena in objects of increasing complexity, beginning with unmodified and modified silica materials. It then describes properties of various mixed oxides with comparisons to individual oxides and also describes carbon materials such as graphite and carbon nanotubes.

Chapters deal with carbon–mineral hybrids and their mosaic surface structures, and interfacial phenomena at the surface of natural and synthetics polymers. They also explore a variety of biosystems, which are much more complex, including biomacromolecules (proteins, DNA, and lipids), cells and tissues, and seeds and herbs. The authors cover trends in interfacial phenomena investigations, and the final chapter describes NMR and other methods used in the book. This text presents a comprehensive description of a large array of hard and soft materials, allowing the analysis of the structure–property relationships and generalities on the interfacial behavior of materials and adsorbates.