Many thousands of pounds are spent every year by pharmaceutical companies on understanding the mechanisms and kinetics of chemical reactions involved in drug discovery and production. NMR spectroscopy is often at the core of these studies as it is a powerful, non-destructive method for structure elucidation. As such investigations can be time-consuming and cost-inefficient, AstraZeneca, the project sponsor, is interested in more efficient methods for studying the kinetics of pharmaceutical reactions. In this work a number of different techniques have been devised, studied, and implemented to study the kinetics of chemical reactions by time-resolved NMR spectroscopy, in which every species in a reaction can be monitored simultaneously. These novel techniques allow the study of reactions which are difficult or impossible to study by conventional NMR methods (such as heterogeneous reactions), or which are complicated by having overlapping signals. It is possible to monitor the kinetics of a reaction very simply by acquiring a series of 1H spectra, and obtaining the integrals of the signals by least squares fitting. This technique has been used for kinetic studies of static and on-flow reactions. In the static systems the reaction mixture was placed in the normal NMR tube in the magnet, while in the flow system the reaction mixture was placed outside of the magnet, and the solution flowed through an NMR tube placed in the magnet. The novel flow system designed, constructed and tested here has been used for kinetic studies of illustrative homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions, and is suitable for use in a wide range of NMR instrumentation. Kinetic studies have also been carried out by acquiring a series of DOSY datasets, analysing the results using the multi-way method PARAFAC (PARAllel FACtor analysis). A series of DOSY datasets contains multivariate information on spectrum, time evolution and diffusion. Without providing any predetermined model, the data can be decomposed by PARAFAC to yield the spectrum, kinetics, and diffusion profiles for each of the components. It has also been shown that PARAFAC is remarkably robust to low signal-to-noise ratio data, significantly below the level at which conventional methods would fail.

A seqüência de pulsos RMN-CWFP (Ressonância Magnética Nuclear - Precessão Livre de Onda Contínua) tem encontrado diversas aplicações na ciência. O presente trabalho analisa a grande sensibilidade dessa seqüência em relação a variações de seus parâmetros espectrais, exclusivamente em uma caracterização teórico-experimental da RMN-CWFP em fluxos do tipo plug-flow, exemplificados por medidas online através do transporte de sementes por uma esteira sob um campo magnético constante no tempo. Foram feitas simulações e medições em várias condições, variando os fatores que influenciam as medidas, como ângulo de nutação (?), ângulo de offset (?), tempo entre pulsos (Tp), gradiente (G), velocidade (v) e tempos de relaxação longitudinal (T1) e transversal (T2). Em determinadas condições fixas de ângulo de nutação, precessão, tempo entre pulsos, gradiente e velocidade, foi observado que poderia existir um ponto nulo com dependência entre T1 e T2. Esse fenômeno foi estudado e algumas aplicações foram sugeridas. O trabalho também validou a seqüência de pulsos CWFP em fluxo como ferramenta para análises quantitativas da massa de óleo em sementes. / The NMR-CWFP pulse sequence (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - Continuous Wave Free Precession) has met several applications in the science. The present work analyses the high sensibility of this sequence to its spectral parameters variation, exclusively in a theoretical and experimental characterization of the flow NMR-CWFP of the kind plug-flow, exemplified by online measures by seeds transport through a mat under a magnetic field constant in time. Simulations and measurements were made on several conditions, varying the factors that have measurement influence, like flip angle (??, offset angle (??, time between pulses (Tp), gradient (G), velocity (v) and longitudinal and transversal relaxation times (T1 and T2). Under certain conditions of flip angle, precession, time between pulses, gradient and velocity, it was noticed that there might be a null point with T1 and T2 dependence. This phenomenon was studied and some applications have been suggested. The work has also validated the CWFP pulse sequence as a quantitative tool to quantitative analysis of seeds oil mass.

A seqüência de pulsos RMN-CWFP (Ressonância Magnética Nuclear - Precessão Livre de Onda Contínua) tem encontrado diversas aplicações na ciência. O presente trabalho analisa a grande sensibilidade dessa seqüência em relação a variações de seus parâmetros espectrais, exclusivamente em uma caracterização teórico-experimental da RMN-CWFP em fluxos do tipo plug-flow, exemplificados por medidas online através do transporte de sementes por uma esteira sob um campo magnético constante no tempo. Foram feitas simulações e medições em várias condições, variando os fatores que influenciam as medidas, como ângulo de nutação (?), ângulo de offset (?), tempo entre pulsos (Tp), gradiente (G), velocidade (v) e tempos de relaxação longitudinal (T1) e transversal (T2). Em determinadas condições fixas de ângulo de nutação, precessão, tempo entre pulsos, gradiente e velocidade, foi observado que poderia existir um ponto nulo com dependência entre T1 e T2. Esse fenômeno foi estudado e algumas aplicações foram sugeridas. O trabalho também validou a seqüência de pulsos CWFP em fluxo como ferramenta para análises quantitativas da massa de óleo em sementes. / The NMR-CWFP pulse sequence (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - Continuous Wave Free Precession) has met several applications in the science. The present work analyses the high sensibility of this sequence to its spectral parameters variation, exclusively in a theoretical and experimental characterization of the flow NMR-CWFP of the kind plug-flow, exemplified by online measures by seeds transport through a mat under a magnetic field constant in time. Simulations and measurements were made on several conditions, varying the factors that have measurement influence, like flip angle (??, offset angle (??, time between pulses (Tp), gradient (G), velocity (v) and longitudinal and transversal relaxation times (T1 and T2). Under certain conditions of flip angle, precession, time between pulses, gradient and velocity, it was noticed that there might be a null point with T1 and T2 dependence. This phenomenon was studied and some applications have been suggested. The work has also validated the CWFP pulse sequence as a quantitative tool to quantitative analysis of seeds oil mass.

The Thesis describes (i) the development of add-on instrumentation extending the capabilities of conventional NMR spectrometers and (ii) the application of the designed equipments and techniques for investigating various colloidal systems. The new equipments are: Novel designs of stopped-flow and temperature–jump inserts intended for conventional Bruker wide-bore superconductive magnets. Both inserts are loaded directly from above into the probe space and can be used together with any 10 mm NMR probe with no need for any auxiliary instruments. A set of 5 mm and 10 mm 1H – 19F – 2H NMR probes designed for heteronuclear 1H – 19F cross-relaxation experiments in Bruker DMX 200, AMX 300 and DMX 500 spectrometers, respectively. A two–stage low-pass filter intended for suppressing RF noise in electrophoretic NMR experiments. The kinetics of micellar dissolution and transformation in aqueous solutions of sodium perfluorooctanoate (NaPFO) is investigated using the stopped-flow NMR instrument. The sensitivity of NMR as detection tool for kinetic processes in micellar solutions is clarified and possible artefacts are analysed. In the NaPFO system, the micellar dissolution is found to proceed faster than 100 ms while surfactant precipitation occurs on the time scale of seconds-to-minutes. The kinetics of the coil-to–globule transition and intermolecular aggregation in a poly (Nisopropylacrylamide) solution are investigated by the temperature-jump NMR instrument. As revealed by the time evolution of the 1H spectrum, the T2 relaxation time and the self-diffusion coefficient D, large (>10 nm) and compact aggregates form in less than 1 second upon fast temperature increase and dissolve in less than 3 seconds upon fast temperature decrease. The intermolecular 1H – 19F dipole-dipole cross-relaxation between the solvent and solute molecules, whose fast rotational diffusion is in the extreme narrowing limit, is investigated. The solutes are perfluorooctanoate ions either in monomeric or in micellar form and trifluoroacetic acid and the solvent is water. The obtained cross-relaxation rates are frequency-dependent which clearly proves that there is no extreme narrowing regime for intermolecular dipole-dipole relaxation. The data provide strong constraints for the dynamic retardation of solvent by the solute. / QC 20100929