Wednesday, March 01, 2006

DECRA-FID Processing to Obtain Quantitative NMR Data???? March 1st, 2006

A strange CPACT NMR project development – DECRA processing of FID data - this involves quantitative analysis of FID signals in order to avoid automated phasing routines – in our process NMR experience phasing is a critical issue in the reproducibility of online NMR data, however, it is not an unsurmountable problem that leads to the development of new processing techniques such as those described here. Robust, repeatable phasing algorithms can be developed and implemented.

The Oil Drum - Peak Oil Blog March 1st, 2006

The Oil Drum is a blog dealing with the impending global problem of Peak Oil Production also called “Hubbert’s Peak” – or should we say Peak “Easy” Oil Production.Other sites that cover this topic are: Peak Oil News, Peak Energy, Past Peak (A little bit anti-Bush), and Peak Oil.Org.

Fossil fuel developments in Oil Shale, Tar Sands, and Coal Liquifaction will have to replace the “Easy Oil”. At $70 per barrel these are all plausible but research and development dollars have to be allocated. Running the world on Corn production is not the way to go technologically even though it satisfies the farming lobby.

European Commision Report on Food Quality Sensors March 1st, 2006

A short European Commision Report on “Food Quality Sensors” – includes spectroscopy (NMR, UV/Vis, NIR-Vis, Vis-Fluorescence, thermoraphy, acoustic impulse, electronic noses).

Cheddar Cheese Flavour - Chemistry and Sensory Perceptions March 1st, 2006

An excellent review on the chemistry of cheddar cheese and the sensory perceptions that arise from that chemistry. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, Vol 2 (2003).

Time-Domain NMR of Lipid Mobility in Bread March 1st, 2006

Low resolution 1H TD-NMR was utilized to determine the mobility and translational diffusion coefficients of lipids in a low moisture (glassy) bread. The mobility of the lipids was found to be independent of moisture content. Journal of Cereal Science (28) 1998, 147-155.

Solid-State 13C NMR of Meteors March 1st, 2006

Solid-state 1H and 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopic experiments on isolated meteoritic Insoluble Organic Matter (IOM) obtained from four different carbonaceous chondrite meteorites; a CR2 (EET92042), a CI1 (Orgueil), a CM2 (Murchison), and an undesignated rank 2 meteorite, Tagish Lake. Short overview web page of NMR investigations into the carbon chemistry of meteorites. Journal article on this subject in PDF can be found here.

If you are interested in having your meteor materials analyzed by solid-state 13C NMR contact John Edwards at Process NMR Associates.

NMR in Industry - Review Papers Available February 26th, 2006

Industrial Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
NMR in Process Control
Applications of NMR to Food and Model Systems in Process Engineering
Process NMR Spectrometry

Practical Applications of NMR in Civil Engineering February 26th, 2006

Practical Applications of NMR in Civil Engineering.

NMR of Hydrocarbons - Online Papers Available February 26th, 2006

Though we have been performing NMR analysis to accurately correlate 1H NMR spectra with physical and chemical properties of gasoline (distillation, octane numbers, benzene, aromatics, olefins, oxygenates, RVP, density) for over a decade, papers still appear in the literature to vindicate that NMR is a powerful tool in the gasoline testing arena.

In a Fuel paper (Vol 83, 2004, 187-193) the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research demonstrate a integral ratio method was demonstrated to yield excellent results for many gasoline parameters of interest to the engineer.
Another strong proponent of NMR utilization in the study of petroleum hydrocarbons is G.S. Kapur of the Indian Oil Corporation. Here are a few of his papers:
1) “Analysis of Hydrocarbon mixtures by Diffusion Ordered Spectroscopy”, Fuel 79, 1347-51 (2000).
2)”The qualitative probing of hydrogen bond strength by diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy”, Tetrahedron Letters 41, 7181-7185 (2000).
3)“Unambigous Resolution of a-Methyl and a- Methylene Protons in 1H-NMR Spectra of Heavy Petroleum Fractions”, Energy Fuels 2005, 19, 508-511
4)”Simplification an assignment of proton and 2-dimensional hetero-correlated NMR spectra of petroleum fractions using gradient selected editing pulse sequences” Fuel 81 (2002) 883-892

A practical guide to PFG spin echo NMR for mixture analysis has been written by Brian Antelek of Eastman Kodak.

Characterization of Coke - Analytical Approach February 25th, 2006

An RSC review paper (Catalysis Volume 17) on the Characterization of Coke (on catalyst surfaces) is presented at the RSC site. The review covers use of AES, IR, Raman, UV, NMR, XRD, SIMS, etc.

NMR and Porometry February 25th, 2006

An overview of NMR applied to porosity of technology materials is presented in the dissertation of Roland Valckenborg entitled “NMR of Porous Technology Materials” (Eindhoven University of Technology 2001).

Another site covering a peculiar NMR application to porosity is the site for NMR Cryoporometry. In this one measures pore size distribution by freezing liquids in the pores and then monitoring melting temperatures by NMR - as the melting point is depressed for crystals of small size the melting point depression gives a measurement of the pore simension that the frozen liquid was in. This is a speciality of Dr. J.B.W. Webber at the University of Kent, UK.

High Resolution Flow NMR for Reaction and Process Monitoring February 23rd, 2006

Where NMR will make an impact in the process monitroing arena is in reaction monitoring where it has huge advantages over optical spectrocopy due to the chemical resolution inherent in the spectrum. An excellent poster by Mailwald et al. presents flow NMR applied to reaction monitoring utilizing a superconducting NMR spectrometer.

Bayesian Analysis of NMR Data - Software Available February 23rd, 2006

Professor Larry Bretthorst (Washington University at St Louis) has made available a Varian VNMR based software package for Bayesian analysis of NMR data. He also maintains a site on Bayesian probability theory.