Advances in studying order and dynamics in condensed matter by NMR

In this thesis, molecular transport in liquid samples is studied in terms of susceptibility induced magnetic field inhomogeneities and spectral distortions for interdiffusion in binary mixtures. Molecular order and dynamics are topics for two different soft solids, natural rubber and polyurethane. The influence of the mixture heterogeneity on the magnetic field homogeneity was investigated in terms of a spatial and time-dependent magnetic susceptibility. The effect of the heterogeneous distribution of magnetic susceptibility in liquid mixtures on the static and rf field homogeneity was simulated together with the corresponding spectral distortions. The problem of low magnetic field homogeneity provided by the Halbach type of magnets is discussed. The design of modified Halbach magnets is studied in order to increase the field homogeneity. The work was focused on two types of Halbach magnets, consisting of 16 and 24 magnet blocks, respectively. Different modifications were applied to these magnet designs, and the field homogeneity was significantly improved. The changes induced in molecular dynamics and order in stretched elastomers was investigated using multispin moments edited by multiple-quantum NMR. The main purpose of this part is to investigate the changes in proton residual dipolar coupling and the sensitivity of multiple quantum coherences of higher order for cross-linked natural rubber under uniaxial deformation. The effect of uniaxial deformation of a natural rubber band was investigated by measurements of second van Vleck moments and fourth moments edited by double-quantum and triple-quantum coherences, respectively. A spin diffusion experiment was employed for the elucidation of the morphology and domain sizes of a series of polyurethane samples. A proton DQ dipolar filer was used to select the magnetization of the rigid phase. The most probable morphology is three-dimensional for the TPU samples with a high content in HS as was established by a combination between the equilibrium magnetizations and the domain size ratios obtained from simulations of the spin-diffusion process using 1D, 2D, and 3D solutions of the spin-diffusion equations. The correlation between macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic properties of the TPU samples was also discussed. A semi-quantitative model was developed to explain the functional dependence of the residual second van Vleck moment on the effective volume of the hard segments. (orig.)