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This study is presented in nine chapters as follows: Chapter one reviews the reported literature on the NMR of natural diamond. The NMR signal of diamond consists on a single line at 39 ppm from TMS and two hyperfine lines due to 13C interactions. The reported relaxation times, measured in natural diamond, synthetic diamonds and 13C enriched diamonds, are discussed. The second chapter introduces the apparatus used, which included a Bruker Avance NMR spectrometer, a Bruker ESP380E pulsed EPR spectrometer and a high powersband DNP system. The availability of this excellently equiped laboratory presented a unique opportunity to perform this investigation. Chapter three outlines the experimental techniques used as well as the manner in which the acquired data was processed. The fourth chapter presents an overview of the most common defects found in diamond. Proposed models of these defects are presented and the resulting EPR spectra displayed. The methods developed to determine the paramagnetic impurity concentration from the EPR line width and the spin-spin relaxation times are presented in the fifth chapter. The line width gives the total paramagnetic impurity concentration to about 10 ppm. The spin-spin relaxation time allows the determination of Pl and P2 paramagnetic impurity concentrations individually, to much lower levels from measurements on the central and hyperfine lines. This information was used in the explanation of the relaxation behaviour for the various diamonds investigated. The temperature dependence of the paramagnetic electron relaxation times is reported in the sixth chapter. The results obtained are consistent with the findings in prior work that Pl impurities are typical Jahn Teller centres. Two diamonds, however, display trends that depart from this theory. These diamonds contain N3 defect centres, which appear to be responsible for this behaviour. It was found in these experiments that, bar thermal expansion effects, the spin-spin relaxation time is essentially independent of temperature. The seventh chapter deals with the solid state and thermal mixing effects. The relevant theory, results obtained and a discussion of these results, are presented. The effect of impurity concentration, defect types, microwave power, the exposure time and the offset from resonance on the polarisation rates and the 13C polarisation are investigated in depth. Finally the effect of applying the DNP treatment on the central and hyperfine lines is discussed. The pulsed DNP process is presented in the eighth chapter. The relevant theory, the effects of matching of the Hartmann-Hahn condition, impurity concentrations and types, on the polarisation rate and signal enhancement of JJC nuclei is given. A comparison to the continuous wave techniques is then made. The ninth chapter summarises the achievements and recommendations for further work. / Physics / D. Phil. (Physics)

A hidroxiapatita e o esmalte dental são, na atualidade, alguns dos materiais mais pesquisados pela técnica de espectroscopia por Ressonância Paramagnética Eletrônica ? RPE. O esmalte dental, que possui cerca de 97% de sua massa constituída por cristais de hidroxiapatita, se apresenta como o tecido humano preferencial para dosimetria de radiação com o uso desta técnica, principalmente no caso de exposições acidentais da população em geral. A análise de hidroxiapatitas sintéticas tem por finalidade auxiliar o entendimento do espectro do esmalte dental bem como desenvolver um dosímetro de radiação com boa eficiência e eficácia. O espectrômetro em banda-K utiliza uma freqüência intermediária aos espectrômetros em banda-X e em banda-Q, possuindo uma melhor resolução que banda-X sem as dificuldades, devido à alta sensibilidade, do banda-Q. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar espectros em banda-K de um bloco de esmalte irradiado e de hidroxiapatitas sintéticas, comparando com espectros de banda-Q e banda-X presentes na literatura, e ainda verificar a possibilidade de se fazer dosimetria de radiação com o uso deste aparelho. / Hydroxyapatite and tooth enamel are, nowadays, some of materials mostly investigated by the spectroscopic technique of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance ? EPR. Tooth enamel, that have about of 97% of its mass constituted by hydroxyapatite crystals, appears itself as the preferential human tissue for radiation dosimetry using EPR, mainly in case of accidental expositions by ordinary personnel. The analyses of synthetic hydroxyapatites have as the main goal to help the understanding of tooth enamel?s spectrum seeking the developing of a radiation dosimeter with good efficiency and accuracy. The K-band EPR spectrometer uses an intermediate frequency between the spectrometers in X-band and Q-band, possessing a better resolution than the X-band without presenting the Q-band?s difficulties. In this preliminary work the EPR spectra of a small block tooth enamel and synthetic hydroxyapatites irradiated were analyzed in K-band, comparing the results with X- and Q-band with published results, the possibility of performing radiation dosimetry at K-band was verified.

This study is presented in nine chapters as follows: Chapter one reviews the reported literature on the NMR of natural diamond. The NMR signal of diamond consists on a single line at 39 ppm from TMS and two hyperfine lines due to 13C interactions. The reported relaxation times, measured in natural diamond, synthetic diamonds and 13C enriched diamonds, are discussed. The second chapter introduces the apparatus used, which included a Bruker Avance NMR spectrometer, a Bruker ESP380E pulsed EPR spectrometer and a high powersband DNP system. The availability of this excellently equiped laboratory presented a unique opportunity to perform this investigation. Chapter three outlines the experimental techniques used as well as the manner in which the acquired data was processed. The fourth chapter presents an overview of the most common defects found in diamond. Proposed models of these defects are presented and the resulting EPR spectra displayed. The methods developed to determine the paramagnetic impurity concentration from the EPR line width and the spin-spin relaxation times are presented in the fifth chapter. The line width gives the total paramagnetic impurity concentration to about 10 ppm. The spin-spin relaxation time allows the determination of Pl and P2 paramagnetic impurity concentrations individually, to much lower levels from measurements on the central and hyperfine lines. This information was used in the explanation of the relaxation behaviour for the various diamonds investigated. The temperature dependence of the paramagnetic electron relaxation times is reported in the sixth chapter. The results obtained are consistent with the findings in prior work that Pl impurities are typical Jahn Teller centres. Two diamonds, however, display trends that depart from this theory. These diamonds contain N3 defect centres, which appear to be responsible for this behaviour. It was found in these experiments that, bar thermal expansion effects, the spin-spin relaxation time is essentially independent of temperature. The seventh chapter deals with the solid state and thermal mixing effects. The relevant theory, results obtained and a discussion of these results, are presented. The effect of impurity concentration, defect types, microwave power, the exposure time and the offset from resonance on the polarisation rates and the 13C polarisation are investigated in depth. Finally the effect of applying the DNP treatment on the central and hyperfine lines is discussed. The pulsed DNP process is presented in the eighth chapter. The relevant theory, the effects of matching of the Hartmann-Hahn condition, impurity concentrations and types, on the polarisation rate and signal enhancement of JJC nuclei is given. A comparison to the continuous wave techniques is then made. The ninth chapter summarises the achievements and recommendations for further work. / Physics / D. Phil. (Physics)

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for obtaining structural information about chemical centres with unpaired electrons. In complex biological systems, EPR spectroscopy can be used to probe these paramagnetic centres and the long-range interactions between them. This thesis investigates two important types of enzymes, and in particular the role of the iron-sulfur electron-transfer centres they contain, with a variety of EPR techniques. Complex I (NADH:Ubiquinone Oxidoreductase) plays a key role in the electron transfer chain essential to the formation of ATP, and its malfunction has been related to numerous human diseases. It is a giant enzyme that contains the longest relay of iron-sulfur clusters known. EPR experiments conducted on complex I from bovine mitochondria yield crucial insight into the mechanism of efficient long-range electron transfer and bring us a step closer to understanding the functioning of this important complex. Hydrogenases are produced by micro-organisms and catalyse the reversible oxidation of H2. Most hydrogenases, including Hyd-2 from Escherichia coli, are very air-sensitive, but some, including E. coli Hyd-1 and Salmonella Hyd-5, are able to function in the presence of atmospheric levels of O2. Understanding the origins of this 'O2-tolerance' is of paramount importance if hydrogenases are to be exploited in future energy technologies. In this thesis, native E. coli Hyd-1 and Hyd-2, Salmonella Hyd-5, as well as O2-tolerant and O2-sensitive variants of E. coli Hyd-1 are characterised using EPR. The EPR investigations elucidate properties of the active site and the electron-transfer relay and, in conjunction with other techniques, reveal structural and mechanistic details of how a highly unusual iron-sulfur cluster in the electron-transfer chain enables some hydrogenases to sustain catalytic activity in the presence of O2.

Electron spin relaxation and carrier recombination were investigated in gallium indium nitride arsenide (GaInNAs) multiple quantum wells, using picosecond optical pulses. Pump-probe experiments were carried out at room temperature, using pulses produced by a Ti:sapphire pumped optical parametric oscillator. The peak wavelengths of the excitonic resonances for the quantum well samples were identified using linear absorption measurements, and were found to be in the range 1.25µm-1.29µm. Carrier recombination times were measured for three samples of varying nitrogen content, and were observed to decrease from 548 to 180ps as nitrogen molar fractions were increased in the range 0.45-1.24%. Carrier recombination times were also measured for samples which had undergone a post-growth annealing process, and were found to be signicantly shorter compared to times measured for as-grown samples. Electron spin relaxation time was investigated for samples with quantum well widths in the range 5.8-8nm, and was found to increase with increasing well width, (i.e. decreasing quantum confinement energy), a trend predicted by both D'Yakonov-Kachorovskii and Elliott-Yafet models of spin relaxation in quantum wells. In a further study, longer spin relaxation times were exhibited by samples containing higher molar fractions of nitrogen, but having nominally constant quantum well width. Spin relaxation times increased from 47ps to 115ps for samples containing nitrogen concentrations in the range 0.45-1.24%. Decreases in spin relaxation time were observed in the case of those samples which had been annealed post-growth, compared to as-grown samples. Finally, all-optical polarisation switching based on spin relaxation of optically generated carriers in GaInNAs multiple quantum wells was demonstrated.

Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a 7TM membrane protein expressed in Halobacterium salinarum. Due to its stability and high expression levels, bR serves as a model for other 7TM membrane proteins. Neurotensin receptor 1 (NTS1) is a member of pharmacologically relevant G protein-coupled receptor superfamily, and is the high affinity receptor for neurotensin, a 13mer peptide that can be found in the brain, gut, and central nervous system. NTS1 is a target for Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, and drug addiction. This thesis aims to develop pulsed magnetic resonance techniques and sample preparation forms for high resolution structural studies on 7TM proteins. In this thesis, pulsed dipolar distance electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) methods for the study of proteins in their native membrane are established. bR is spin-labeled, and a wellresolved distance distribution is measured in excellent agreement with other structural data. Preliminary distance data for a photoexcited state of bR suggests quaternary rearrangements in the native membrane that are agreement with published AFM results. A fitting method is developed to enable measurements of systems with rapid signal decay, a common feature in reconstituted systems studied by pulsed EPR methods. A physical chemical characterization of nanosized-bilayer discs termed Lipodisqs®, and the successful incorporation of bR is presented. Lipodisqs® are formed from DMPC and a polymer that is able to solubilize DMPC vesicles into discrete particles. Lipodisqs® possess a broad phase transition with increased lipid ordering compared to a DMPC dispersion. The SMA polymer interacts with the lipid tails, but does not perturb the headgroup. BR is incorporated in the monomeric form, and EPR dynamic and distance measurements confirm that Lipodisqs® preserve the native structure of bR, whilst detergent solubilisation increases the overall mobility compared to bR in its native membrane, suggesting that Lipodisqs® serve as an excellent medium for EPR studies on 7TM membrane proteins. A cysteine-depleted mutant of active, ligand binding NTS1 is constructed. Cysteines are reintroduced at positions that may be able to monitor agonist and inverse-agonist induced conformational and dynamic changes. A spin-labeling protocol is developed, and preliminary EPR measurements are discussed. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) results are presented with uniformly-¹³C-labelled bR in the PM, resulting in a DNP enhancement of 16 using the biradical nitroxide polarizing agent, TOTAPOL. DNP-enhanced solid state NMR (ssNMR) is typically carried out at cryogenic temperatures, resulting in poor spectral resolution compared to ambient temperatures. Two different forms of samples are prepared that could potentially lead to better-resolved DNP spectra. BR is reverse labelled by adding natural abundance amino acids to isotopically labelled growth medium, resulting in the partial depletion of resonance signals that may obscure and crowd the NMR spectra. A crystalline sample of bR is prepared using the LCP method for crystallization, which is to date the most successful method for the crystallization of GPCRs. In summary, the first pulsed dipolar measurements of a protein in its native membrane are shown, Lipodisqs® are characterized and found to be a suitable medium for structural and functional studies of 7 TM membrane proteins, the first preliminary EPR studies on a ligand binding GPCR are presented, and novel sample preparation techniques are developed for the nitroxide-based DNP enhancement of ssNMR data. This thesis opens up several avenues for future research into 7TM membrane proteins.

A alimentação humana necessita de nutrientes essenciais em sua dieta de forma balanceada. A carne é uma perfeita fonte de proteína e suplemento de ferro, zinco e outros micronutrientes como as vitaminas. O consumo de carne deve ser cada vez maior, já que a produção mundial que em 2012 era de 302 milhões de toneladas, hoje é de aproximadamente 319 milhões. Concomitantes ao aumento no consumo mundial de carne surgem dois problemas. A carne e produtos cárneos induzem ao estress oxidativo, por meio do ferro catalizado na formação de espécies reativas ou por ingestão de hidroperóxidos orgânicos durante a digestão. Tais espécies podem acarretar deterioração do produto, afetando seu tempo de exposição em prateleira e comprometendo sua qualidade, interferindo em questões econômicas. Dentro de um contexto de saúde pública, estas espécies podem gerar desequilíbrio celular, mutações genéticas e danos cromossômicos, desencadeando doenças degenerativas no organismo humano. Uma dieta balanceada deve ser inspirada na natureza. Por meio da evolução as plantas desenvolveram, devido ao estress oxidativo, a capacidade de produzir compostos bioativos como xantinas e compostos fenólicos, como mecanismo de proteção. A Erva-mate, Ilex paraguariensis contém alta quantidade relativa destes compostos, que atuam como antioxidantes, os quais podem ser usados como aditivos na alimentação, com o objetivo de modificar o estado redox do organismo animal. Isto pode induzir mudanças no metabolismo, afetando a composição do tecido muscular e, consequentemente, a qualidade da carne. O presente trabalho se propôs a investigar as mudanças no perfil de composição dos metabólitos polares e seu impacto na estabilidade redox da carne de frangos de corte que tiveram suas dietas suplementadas com diferentes níveis de extrato de erva-mate na ração. A adição de tais extratos claramente promoveu uma mudança quantitativa na composição de metabólitos polares da carne como mostrado a partir de análises de 1H RMN e impactou positivamente na estabilidade redox segundo análises por spin-trapping RPE. Por fim, a adição de 0,075% m/m de extrato de erva-mate na alimentação de frangos de corte mostrou-se como o tratamento mais indicado, promovendo mudanças bioquímicas no metabolismo do animal, melhorando a estabilidade oxidativa da carne, seu tempo de exposição em prateleira e um produto de maior qualidade e segurança para o consumidor. / Human food needs to supply essential nutrients in balance. Meat is a perfect protein source and supplies iron and zinc and many micronutrients like vitamins. The consumption of meat would increase in the next years because the global production in 2012 was 302 millions of tons, and actually is 319 millions of tons, approximately. Concomitantly with the increasing of global consumption of meat, two problems arise. Meat and meat products also hold the risk of inducing oxidative stress through iron catalyzed formation of reactive species or by ingestion of organic hydro peroxides during digestion. These species can cause the deterioration of the product, affecting its shelf-life, compromising its quality and influencing economic aspects. In the context of the public health, these species can generate cellular imbalance, genetic mutations, and chromosome damages, resulting in degenerative diseases of the human organism. A balanced diet should be inspired by Nature. Through evolution, oxidative stress made plants to produce bioactive compounds like xanthines and phenolic compounds to protect against oxidative stress. Yerba-mate, Ilex paraguariensis, contains relative high amounts of these compounds that act as antioxidants, which may be use as a feeding additive in order to modify the redox status of the animal organism. This may induce change in the animal metabolism, affecting the muscle tissue composition and thus the meat quality. The present investigation aims to screen changes in the polar metabolites composition and its impact on the redox stability of meat from broilers fed with different levels of yerba-mate extract as feed additive. The addition of mate extract to broilers feed clearly provided a quantitative change in the polar metabolites of meat as shown by 1H NMR analysis and impacted positively in the redox stability of meat as probed by spin-trapping EPR analysis. In conclusion, addition of 0.075 % w/w of yerba-mate extract to the broilers feed shown up like the best treatment because it produced biochemical changes in the animal metabolism improving the oxidative stability meat which may positively increase the product shelf-life and a safer and higher quality product to the consumer.

Nesta dissertação, apresentamos dois estudos por ressonância paramagnética eletrônica (RPE) de complexos de cobre. O primeiro estudo contempla os complexos mononucleares de cobre e seu objetivo é analisar a simetria de coordenação dos sítios paramagnéticos. Os espectros de RPE obtidos em banda X na temperatura de 50K para as amostras de membranas e bio-membranas dopadas com Cu(ClO4)2 indicam a presença do íon Cu2+ em sítios de simetria axial. Com a análise dos espectros experimentais, obtivemos os parâmetros do Hamiltoniano de spin e através do modelo empírico de Peisach-Blumberg foi possível observarmos que, para a maioria das amostras analisadas, a complexação equatorial do íon Cu2+ ocorre com átomos de nitrogênio e oxigênio. O segundo estudo contempla os complexos dinucleares de cobre e seu objetivo é analisar as interações dipolar e de troca. Os espectros obtidos em banda Q em temperatura ambiente (300K) para o complexo dinuclear [Cu2(Sant)4 (H2O)2] 2.5H2O em sua forma monocristalina indicaram a presença do íon Cu2+ em sítios de simetria axial com duas unidades dinucleares magneticamente não equivalentes por célula unitária na amostra. Com a análise da variação angular das linhas de ressonância foi possível obtermos os parâmetros do Hamiltoniano de Spin e estimarmos a constante de acoplamento de troca como sendo J0 <&asymp;>324 cm1. / This dissertation presents two electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies on copper complexes. The first study focused mononuclear copper complexes and its objective is to analyze the symmetry of coordination of the paramagnetic sites. The 50K X-band EPR spectra obtained for membranes and bio-membranes doped with Cu(ClO4)2 indicates the presence of the Cu2+ ion in axially distorted sites. Through the analysis of the experimental spectra the spin Hamiltonian parameters are obtained and using the Peisach-Blumberg empirical model its possible to notice that the equatorial complexation of the Cu2+ ion occurs with both nitrogen and oxigen for most of the samples. The second study focused dinuclear copper complexes and its objective is to analyze both dipolar and exchange interactions. The room temperature Q-band EPR spectra obtained for the monocrystalline form of the dinuclear complex [Cu2(sant)4 (H2O)2] 2.5H2O indicates the presence of the Cu2+ ion in axially distorted sites with two non-equivalent dimeric units per unit cell of the sample. With the analisys of the angular variation of the resonant lines we are able to obtain the spin Hamiltonian parameters and estimate the exchange coupling constant J0 &asymp; 324 cm1.