Dipolar interactions in deuteron spin systems. II. Transverse relaxation

Interplay of ethaline and water dynamics in a hydrated eutectic solvent: Deuteron and oxygen magnetic resonance studies of aqueous ethaline

For many technological processes, the impact of water addition on the properties of deep eutectic solvents is of central importance. In this context, the impact of hydration on the reorientational dynamics of the deep eutectic solvent (DES) ethaline, a 2:1 molar mixture of ethylene glycol and choline chloride, was studied. Its overall response was explored by means of shear mechanical rheology. To achieve component-selective insights into the dynamics of this material, isotope-edited deuteron and oxygen spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxometry, as well as stimulated-echo spectroscopy, were applied and yielded motional correlation times from above room temperature down to the highly viscous regime. For all temperatures, the cholinium anion was found to reorient about two times slower than ethylene glycol, while the water and the ethylene glycol molecules display very similar mobilities. While hydration enhances the component dynamics with respect to that of dry ethaline, the present findings reveal that it does not detectably increase the heterogeneity of the solvent. Merely, the time scale similarity that is found for the hydrogen bond donor and the water molecules over a particularly wide temperature range impressively attests to the stability of the native solvent structure in the "water-in-DES" regime.

Paddle-wheel mechanism in doped succinonitrile-glutaronitrile plastic electrolyte: a joint magnetic resonance, dielectric, and viscosimetry study of Li ion translational and molecular reorientational dynamics

Mixtures of 60% SN (succinonitrile) and 40% GN (glutaronitrile) doped with LiTFSI or LiPF₆ at different concentrations are investigated using dielectric spectroscopy. Room temperature conductivities up to 10^-3 S cm^-1 are measured along with an overall conductivity enhancement of almost five decades compared to pure SN. Additionally, the dynamics of the methylene (CD₂) groups of SN and that of the Li⁺ ions within the mixture are studied in a wide temperature range using ²H and ⁷Li NMR relaxometry, respectively. Static-field-gradient proton NMR combined with viscosity measurements probe the molecular diffusion. GN addition and Li doping both enhance the electrical conductivity significantly, while leaving the reorientational motion within the matrix essentially unchanged. The times scales and thus the effective energy barriers characterizing the Li ion motion as well as the molecular reorientations are very similar in the liquid and in the plastic phases, findings that argue in favor of the presence of a paddle-wheel mechanism.

Deuteron magnetic resonance study of glyceline deep eutectic solvents: Selective detection of choline and glycerol dynamics

Glyceline, a green solvent considered for various electrochemical applications, represents a multi-component glass former. Viewed from this perspective, the choline cation and the hydrogen bond donor glycerol, the two major constituents forming this deep eutectic solvent, were studied using nuclear magnetic resonance in a selective manner by means of suitably deuteron-labeled isotopologues. Carried out from far above to far below the glass transition temperature, measurements and analyses of the spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation times reveal that the reorientational dynamics of the components, i.e., of glycerol as well as of chain deuterated choline chloride are slightly different. Possible implications of this finding regarding the hydrogen-bonding pattern in glyceline are discussed. Furthermore, the deuterated methyl groups in choline chloride are exploited as sensitive probes of glyceline's supercooled and glassy states. Apart from spin relaxometry, a detailed line shape analysis of the CD₃ spectra yields valuable insights into the broad intermolecular and intramolecular energy barrier distributions present in this binary mixture.

Local-field approximation of homonuclear dipolar interactions in ⁷Li-NMR: density-matrix calculations and random-walk simulations tested by echo experiments on borate glasses

NMR echo techniques have proven to be important to study dynamics in ion conductors and other solid materials. Using the spin-3/2 nucleus (7)Li as a probe, both the quadrupolar and the often neglected homonuclear dipolar interactions modulate the NMR frequency as the ion performs jump processes. Retaining only the local-field term of the many-body Hamiltonian, the impact of the dipolar interaction on various echo experiments was studied using spin dynamics calculations yielding products of dipolar and quadrupolar correlation functions. Using a simple stochastic model these functions were simulated with particular emphasis on the impact of ionic motions and on the conditions under which the dipolar and quadrupolar contributions factorize. The results of the computations and of the random-walk simulations are compared with experimental data obtained for various lithium borate and lithium borophosphate glasses. It is concluded that the local-field approximation is a useful means of treating the Li-Li dipole interactions and that the simple model that we introduce is capable of describing many experimentally observed features. Furthermore, because the dipolar and quadrupolar contributions essentially factorize, a selective determination of the corresponding correlation functions becomes possible.

(6)Li NMR in lithium borate glasses

In anticipation of using fluctuations in the nuclear dipolar and quadrupolar interaction as a probe of lithium ion motion in lithium borate glasses, the static values of these interactions were measured using a variety of echo techniques. The static quadrupolar echo spectrum of (7)Li and a calculation of the dipolar interaction in crystalline Li(2)B(4)O(7) (same chemical composition as the glass under study) were used to estimate the strength of the two interactions. These indicate that the dipolar and quadrupolar interactions for (6)Li will be of similar size and the dipolar interaction will be dominated by the unlike spin interaction between the (6)Li and the (10)B, (11)B spins. An appropriate theoretical model is proposed and explicit expressions for the echo amplitude are calculated in terms of the dipolar and quadrupolar second moments. This single spin model takes into account the quadrupolar interaction but treats the dipolar interaction as an effective magnetic field. Experimental results are presented which show the essential validity of the model and measurements lead to reasonable values for the dipolar and quadrupolar second moments. The relative merits of the various echo techniques are discussed.

Core ionization potentials from self-interaction corrected Kohn-Sham orbital energies

We propose a simple self-interaction correction to Kohn-Sham orbital energies in order to apply ground state Kohn-Sham density functional theory to accurate predictions of core electron binding energies and chemical shifts. The proposition is explored through a series of calculations of organic compounds of different sizes and types. Comparison is made versus experiment and the "DeltaKohn-Sham" method employing separate state optimizations of the ground and core hole states, with the use of the B3LYP functional and different basis sets. A parameter alpha is introduced for a best fitting of computed and experimental ionization potentials. It is found that internal parametrizations in terms of basis set expansions can be well controlled. With a unique alpha=0.72 and basis set larger than 6-31G, the core ionization energies (IPs) of the self-interaction corrected Kohn-Sham calculations fit quite well to the experimental values. Hence, self-interaction corrected Kohn-Sham calculations seem to provide a promising tool for core IPs that combines accuracy and efficiency.

Correlation of primary relaxations and high-frequency modes in supercooled liquids. I. Theoretical background of a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment

The question regarding a possible correlation of the time scales of primary and secondary relaxations in supercooled liquids is formulated quantitatively. It is shown how this question can be answered using spin-lattice relaxation weighted stimulated-echo experiments, which are presented in an accompanying paper [A. Nowaczyk, B. Geil, G. Hinze, and R. Böhmer, Phys. Rev. E 74, 041505 (2006)]. General theoretical expressions relevant for the description of such experiments in the presence of correlation effects are derived. These expressions are analyzed by Monte Carlo integration for various correlation scenarios also including exchange processes, which are the hallmark of dynamical heterogeneity. The results of these numerical simulations provide clear signatures that allow one to distinguish uncorrelated from differently correlated cases. Since modified spin-lattice relaxation effects occur in the presence of nonexponential magnetization recovery, it is shown how to correct for them to a good approximation.

Simple modeling of dipolar coupled 7Li spins and stimulated-echo spectroscopy of single-crystalline beta-eucryptite

Stimulated-echo spectroscopy has recently been applied to study the ultra-slow dynamics of nuclear spin-3/2 probes such as 7Li and 9Be in solids. Apart from the dominant first-order quadrupolar interaction in the present article also the impact of the homonuclear dipolar interactions is considered in a simple way: the time evolution of a dipole coupled pair of spins with I = 3/2 is calculated in an approximation, which takes into account that the satellite transitions usually do not overlap. Explicit analytical expressions describing various aspects of a coupled quadrupolar pair subjected to a Jeener-Broekaert pulse sequence are derived. Extensions to larger spin systems are also briefly discussed. These results are compared with experimental data on a single-crystalline Li ion conductor.

Stimulated-echo NMR spectroscopy of 9Be and 7Li in solids: method and application to ion conductors

The generation of pure quadrupolar stimulated-echo spectra is successfully demonstrated for the spin-3/2 probe 9Be in a single crystal of triglycine fluoberyllate. This solid exhibits a paraelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition. From experiments carried out for various mixing times no indications for a slow soft mode could be detected in this crystal. Then ion conducting lithium metal phosphates were studied using 7Li, another spin-3/2 probe which allows for a non-selective excitation of the entire NMR spectrum. In the indium and the scandium phosphates ultra-slow Li hopping processes could be detected directly via the stimulated-echo technique in a time range of up to four orders of magnitude. Due to the relatively large gyromagnetic ratio and thus strong dipolar interactions of 7Li no pure quadrupolar echoes could be generated. However, from a variation of the evolution times the quadrupolar effects could be separated from the dipolar ones. Finally, the differences in the ion hopping times of lithium indium phosphate and of lithium scandium phosphate are briefly discussed.