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Spectroscopy

The magic of solenoids

Nature volume 447, pages 646–647 (2007)Cite this article

A technique known as magic-angle spinning has helped make nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as sensitive for solids as it is for solutions. Inductive thinking leads to even better signal detection.

The great strength of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is that it can determine, non-invasively and at atomic resolution, the chemistry, structure, dynamics and overall architecture of samples in solid, liquid or even gaseous forms. The liquid version of the technique, solution NMR, is used routinely to identify small molecules, study protein structures and dynamics, and probe intermolecular interactions. Solid-state NMR teases out the structure and properties of materials, surfaces and biological solids such as human tissue. But compared with many other analytical techniques, NMR has extremely poor sensitivity. A great deal of research has sought to improve this situation: on page 694 of this issue1, Sakellariou et al. describe a potential leap forward for solid-state NMR.

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Figure 1: Inductive logic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arthur S. Edison and Joanna R. Long are in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McKnight Brain Institute, and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, University of Florida, Box 100245, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0245, USA. art@mbi.ufl.edu; jrlong@mbi.ufl.edu,

    Arthur S. Edison & Joanna R. Long

  2. jrlong@mbi.ufl.edu,

    Arthur S. Edison & Joanna R. Long

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  1. Arthur S. Edison
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  2. Joanna R. Long
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Edison, A., Long, J. The magic of solenoids. Nature 447, 646–647 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/447646a

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