Dipolar Solid State NMR Approaches Towards Medium-Range Structure in Oxide Glasses

Abstract

Modern solid state nuclear magnetic resonance presents new powerful opportunities for the elucidation of medium range order in glasses in the sub-nanometer region. In contrast to standard chemical shift spectroscopy, the strategy presented here is based on the precise measurement and quantitative analysis of internuclear magnetic dipole-dipole interactions, which can be related to distance information in a straightforward manner. The review discusses the most commonly employed experimental techniques, producing dipolar coupling information in both homo- and heteronuclear spin systems. The approach is particularly powerful in combination with magic-angle sample spinning, producing site-resolved dipolar coupling information. We present new applications to oxide-based network glasses, permitting network connectivities and spatial cation distributions to be elucidated.