Actuellement, une voie de développement de formulations médicamenteuses novatrices passe par la vectorisation de principes actifs connus dans des nanoparticules. Des matériaux hybrides sont ainsi formés, possédant de nouvelles propriétés liées au nano-confinement. Les travaux ici menés s’appuient sur la sensibilité de la Résonance Magnétique Nucléaire (RMN) du solide aux phénomènes prenant place aux échelles moléculaires, pour effectuer une analyse structurelle et dynamique de deux vecteurs. Le premier, hydrophile, est une matrice nanoporeuse de silice sol-gel, dans laquelle sont confinés des complexes de nitroprussiate de sodium isolés. À partir de mesures de relaxation de spin et d’anisotropie de déplacement chimique, différents régimes de dynamique moléculaire sont mis en évidence. Ils sont modulés par la présence de molécules de solvant résiduelles (H2O). Des gammes de température et d’hydratation sont identifiées, pour lesquelles le complexe reste associé malgré un état ‘‘pseudo-liquide’’. Dans la condition limite d’absence d’eau, la restriction du mouvement des complexes confinés est élucidée en caractérisant les interactions dipolaires hôtes / invités. Le second système allie la double vectorisation de la curcumine hydrophobe dans des nanoparticules de lipides solides encapsulées dans une matrice de silice (SBA-15). Une stratégie d’étude conjointe par RMN du solide et par calorimétrie différentielle à balayage (DSC) est mise en place. Les résultats montrent que d’autres facteurs que la compartimentalisation (polymorphisme, dynamique moléculaire des composés hôtes) doivent également être pris en compte pour la compréhension des propriétés de ces matériaux très hétérogènes. Malgré le recours à une instrumentation RMN de dernière génération (spectromètre 1GHz, sonde MAS 1.3mm), la présence de principe actif est observée uniquement dans les compartiments de tensioactif. Ces résultats permettent d’émettre de nouvelles hypothèses sur la distribution du principe actif, tout en montrant les limites de l’approche RMN basée uniquement sur l’étude des noyaux 1H. / Nowadays, a way of developing novel medicinal compounds focuses on confinement of known active molecules inside nanoparticles. Therefore, hybrid materials emerge, exhibiting new properties related to nano-confinement. This work relies on the sensibility of solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SS-NMR) towards molecular scale phenomena in order to perform structural and dynamical analysis of two delivery systems. They are modulated by the influence of residual solvent molecules (H2O). Temperature and hydration ranges are identified, for which the complex stays associated, although it is in a liquid-like state. Toward the limit of water absence, movement restrictions of the confined complexes are elucidated by characterizing dipolar host / guest interactions. The second system combines a double vectorization of hydrophobic curcumin molecules inside solid lipid nanoparticles, encapsulated inside a silica matrix (SBA-15). A joint SS-NMR and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) characterization strategy is put in place. The results show that other factors than compartmentalization (polymorphism, molecular dynamics of host compounds) should also be taken into account to understand the properties of these very heterogeneous materials. Despite resorting to the latest NMR instrumentation (1GHz spectrometer, 1.3mm MAS probehead), presence of the active ingredient is only detected inside the surfactant compartment. These results allow making new assumptions for the distribution of curcumin inside the material while showing the limits of an NMR approach relying solely on the study of 1H nuclei.

The thesis aims at methodological developments in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and study of oriented samples like liquid crystals and single crystals and powder samples. Though methodological development in solid state NMR (ss-NMR) has gone far ahead, this work attempts to contribute some novel methods in this direction. The work presented here falls into two categories (i) methodological developments for obtaining information on anisotropic interactions and (ii) experiments which utilize the existing methodologies to study systems of interest under static condition and also under sample spinning at the Magic Angle. In the solid state, dipolar couplings play a crucial role. On the one hand these couplings could be used to transfer polarization from an abundant nucleus to a rare nucleus and increase the sensitivity of the rare nucleus. On the other hand, the measurement of dipolar couplings itself is crucial for extracting structural and dynamic information. A third aspect is that dipolar couplings could be used to obtain correlation, say between two different nuclear species or between the same kind of nuclei as in an exchange experiment. A major part of this thesis deals with all three aspects mentioned above. The thesis presents a new heteronuclear polarization transfer scheme which is devoid of some of the short comings of the existing and well-known polarization transfer schemes. This pulse sequence has been found to be useful in different contexts involving both spin ½ and spin 1 nucleus. The use of dipolar couplings for obtaining correlation in both static oriented systems and in powder samples has been illustrated. In the case of the powder sample, the study has been useful in obtaining useful orientation information. Finally, chemical shifts are known to be indicators of finer structural features of molecules in solution and solid state. 13 C MAS NMR studies have been exploited in understanding these structural features of short peptides containing prolines in the solid state and for comparing with their structures in solution. Chapter 1 covers the theoretical aspects required for the experimental work described in the thesis. A brief description of NMR has been followed by the explicit description of various interaction Hamiltonian’s in ss-NMR. Subsequently the experimental and the theoretical tools needed for ss-NMR study like Magic Angle Spinning (MAS), Cross-Polarization, Homo/Heteronuclear decoupling schemes have also been discussed. Chapter 2, describes a new heteronuclear polarization transfer scheme for oriented samples – named DAPT (Dipolar Assisted Polarization Transfer) and its application to different systems. DAPT uses a homonuclear decoupling sequence such as BLEW-12 for effecting heteronuclear polarization transfer. The chapter has been divided into five related parts. Section 2(A) starts with an introduction to the existing heteronuclear polarization transfer schemes. Subsequently the theoretical background of the new sequence is presented. Experimental implementation of the sequence in an oriented system, liquid crystal is presented and is compared with the well-known polarization transfer scheme, Hartmann-Hahn Cross Polarization (HH-CP). In 2(B) the implementation of the sequence as a local field spectroscopy for measuring heteronuclear dipolar couplings is presented. After initial discussion about local field spectroscopy and its relevance in ss-NMR, the improvements made in the earlier mentioned sequence along with its 2D implementation in a liquid crystal sample are described. A comparative study is also presented using DAPT with various other homonuclear decoupling sequences. Chapter 2(C) deals with the extension of DAPT to spin-1 systems. The difficulties in setting up the HH-CP in spin-1 systems are highlighted. Experimental demonstrations on a test sample of oriented CD3 I and also on a deuterated liquid crystal is described. The sequence has been incorporated as part of a 2D correlation experiment, where the F1 dimension provides the quadrupolar couplings of deuterium and the F2 the chemical shifts of the attached carbons. The comparison of the sequence with HH-CP, its merits and demerits are discussed and the potential applications are highlighted. Chapter 2(D) deals with the relatively less studied transition in 14N nucleus, known as the Overtone-Transition (OT). An introduction to OT and its relevance is provided in the beginning followed by the extension of DAPT in exciting and detecting OT. The experiments have been done on a single crystal of a model peptide, N-Acetyl-DL-Valine and are compared with the conventional method. Amide proton chemical shifts are also measured using DAPT in an indirect way. The advantages and the future application in studying OT are also discussed. Chapter 2(E) discusses the extension of DAPT to the single crystal of NAV and in identifying the molecules in the unit cell. The SLF spectrum of NAV is complicated due to the presence of two magnetically in-equivalent molecules in the unit cell and with pairs of splitting for each C - 1H and C - 1H pairs. The dipolar couplings are extracted from the experiment and with the aid of a MATLAB program and by incorporating the crystal coordinates, identification of C-1H and C-1H pairs belonging to a particular molecule have been carried out. Chapter 3 describes a novel and useful modification of the well-known Separated Local Field (SLF) sequence in solid state known as PISEMA (Polarization Spin Exchange at the Magic Angle). PISEMA is a popular technique for measuring heteronuclear dipolar couplings in oriented in oriented biological membranes and in liquid crystals. While it has several advantages such as a large dipolar scaling factor, narrow line-widths in the dipolar dimension and ease of setting up etc it suffers from a major problem. The technique is highly sensitive to the proton off-sets which affect the measured dipolar couplings. In the present chapter the origin of this problem has been analyzed in detail and a solution has been proposed. The modification to the experiment has been implemented on a liquid crystal and the off-set independence of the new sequence has been demonstrated. Further studies on a more rigid system such as a solid single crystal has been used to verify the effect of the modification on homonuclear decoupling efficiency and the consequent effects on the line widths in addition to off-set independence. The advantages of the proposed method over the existing one in terms of line-width and robustness in measuring heteronuclear dipolar couplings are demonstrated. Chapter 4 presents a study of deuterium exchange on a di-peptide. Deuterium as well as carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy has been extensively used earlier on static powder samples for studying exchange phenomena. In the present study we have applied the methodology for obtaining relative N-D vector orientation in a di-peptide. The magnetization exchange between deuterium nuclei through the dipolar couplings between them has been monitored. The need to match the quadrupolar split energy levels of two different deuterium’s differently oriented in the magnetic field requires that the sample be spun slowly. Characteristic exchange powder patterns were obtained which were used to infer relative orientation information. Comparison with the crystal structure indicates that the magnetization is likely to be inter-molecular rather than intra-molecular. The chapter follows the following sequence. A brief description about the importance of exchange studies in ss-NMR is presented. A theoretical approach is followed by a discussion of the angular dependence of the frequencies and the visualization of the mutual re-orientation angles. The motivation of the project followed by the experimental techniques, especially the use of slow MAS ~ 100 Hz in exchange studies are also presented. Initial studies have been carried out on di-methyl sulphone to check the reproducibility of the earlier reported results and later the sequence is extended to amide proton deuterated di-glycine. The 2D exchange spectrum recorded under slow MAS is then discussed in the context of the crystal structure and possible amide deuteriums involved in the exchange process are inferred. Chapter 5 discusses the natural abundant 13C and 15N NMR spectroscopy in the solid state in designed tri-peptides containing prolines. Proline is a unique amino acid because of it torsion angle values and is responsible for the turns and the globularity of the proteins. The well studied SH3 domain protein often binds to short peptides containing prolines and hence these study gains importance. Three peptides containing prolines were taken up for study. For peptide (1), the conformation was observed as cis/trans in the solution state and for the other two peptides it was all trans. The X-ray studies showed that peptide (1) has two molecules in the unit cell with both cis conformation. This motivated us to look at the solid state spectra of the peptides. Chemical shifts are signatures of conformers and it was established from the chemical shift differences that there exist two molecules in the unit cell for peptide (1), both in cis conformation. The conformers for the other two peptides predicted by NMR chemical shifts also matched with those obtained from X-ray studies. This opens up the possibility of using simple NMR measurements in the solid state as tools for secondary structure determination in larger peptides and proteins.

Interactions between peptides and biological lipid membranes play a crucial role in many cellular processes such as in the mechanism behind Alzheimer’s disease where amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta)is thought to be a key component. The initial step of binding between a surface active peptide and its target membrane or membrane receptor can involve a non specific electrostatic association where positively charged amino acid residues and a negatively charged membrane surface interact. Here, the use of high resolution MAS NMR provides a highly sensitive and non perturbing way of studying the electrostatic potential present at lipid membrane surfaces and the changes resulting from the association of peptides. The interaction between pharmacologically relevant peptides and lipid membranes can also involve incorporation of the peptide into the membrane core and by complementing the NMR approach with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) the hydrophobic incorporation can be studied in a non invasive way. By using 14N MAS NMR on biological lipid systems for the first time, in addition to 31P, 2H NMR and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), gives a full picture of the changes all along the phospholipid following interactions at the membrane interface region. Being able to monitor the full length of the phospholipid enables us to differentiate between interactions related to either membrane surface association or hydrophobic core incorporation. This approach was used to establish that the interaction between nociceptin and negatively charged lipid membranes is electrostatic and hence that nociceptin can initially associate with a membrane surface before binding to its receptor. Also, it was found that Abeta can interact with phospholipid membranes via two types of interactions with fundamentally adverse effects. The results reveal that Abeta can associate with the surface of a neuronal membrane promoting accelerated aggregation of the peptide leading to neuronal apoptotic cell death. Furthermore it is also shown that Abeta can anchor itself into the membrane and suppress the neurotoxic aggregation of Abeta.

Chlorine solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) is an ideal site specific probe of chloride-containing solids as SSNMR tensor properties are sensitive to the local chlorine environment. In this thesis, the development and use of chlorine SSNMR as a method to characterize a wide variety of chemical environments was explored. Ultrahigh field, and multi-field studies were essential to overcome the difficulties associated with the collection of chlorine SSNMR spectra. Benchmark chemical shift (CS) and electric field gradient (EFG) tensor data were collected for organic chloride systems, including several amino acid hydrochlorides. These experiments demonstrated the sensitivity of chlorine SSNMR to slight changes in chemical environment. Quantum chemical calculations were used to complement experimental data, with the gauge-including projector augmented wave DFT (GIPAW-DFT) method shown to yield better agreement than B3LYP or RHF methods. The GIPAW-DFT method was found to slightly, but systematically, overestimate the chlorine quadrupolar coupling constant and the CS tensor span. Other organic chlorides examined by chlorine SSMR included a known ion receptor, meso-octamethylcalix[4]pyrrole. This compound was found to have a very small quadrupole interaction (QI), but significant chemical shift anisotropy (CSA). GIPAW-DFT calculations were also utilized and, in combination with the experimental results, used to identify the solvate structure of the material analyzed by NMR. Chlorine SSNMR was further used to study different solvate structures and polymorphism. The technique was an effective means to distinguish different room temperature polymorphs of benzidine hydrochloride, despite the similarities of the chloride environments. In the case of magnesium chloride, chlorine SSNMR was sensitive to the level of hydration and through the use of GIPAW-DFT calculations, the identity of an unknown hydrate was determined. An analysis of several group thirteen chlorides demonstrated that chlorine SSNMR was also capable of characterizing the chlorine environment in cases where the QI is large, despite the resulting broad line widths. In these systems GIPAW-DFT calculations also yielded excellent agreement with experimental values. Throughout this research, chlorine SSNMR has been shown to be a useful and effective means to study both organic and inorganic chlorides, with computational methods proving to be an important complement to experimental data.

Chlorine solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) is an ideal site specific probe of chloride-containing solids as SSNMR tensor properties are sensitive to the local chlorine environment. In this thesis, the development and use of chlorine SSNMR as a method to characterize a wide variety of chemical environments was explored. Ultrahigh field, and multi-field studies were essential to overcome the difficulties associated with the collection of chlorine SSNMR spectra. Benchmark chemical shift (CS) and electric field gradient (EFG) tensor data were collected for organic chloride systems, including several amino acid hydrochlorides. These experiments demonstrated the sensitivity of chlorine SSNMR to slight changes in chemical environment. Quantum chemical calculations were used to complement experimental data, with the gauge-including projector augmented wave DFT (GIPAW-DFT) method shown to yield better agreement than B3LYP or RHF methods. The GIPAW-DFT method was found to slightly, but systematically, overestimate the chlorine quadrupolar coupling constant and the CS tensor span. Other organic chlorides examined by chlorine SSMR included a known ion receptor, meso-octamethylcalix[4]pyrrole. This compound was found to have a very small quadrupole interaction (QI), but significant chemical shift anisotropy (CSA). GIPAW-DFT calculations were also utilized and, in combination with the experimental results, used to identify the solvate structure of the material analyzed by NMR. Chlorine SSNMR was further used to study different solvate structures and polymorphism. The technique was an effective means to distinguish different room temperature polymorphs of benzidine hydrochloride, despite the similarities of the chloride environments. In the case of magnesium chloride, chlorine SSNMR was sensitive to the level of hydration and through the use of GIPAW-DFT calculations, the identity of an unknown hydrate was determined. An analysis of several group thirteen chlorides demonstrated that chlorine SSNMR was also capable of characterizing the chlorine environment in cases where the QI is large, despite the resulting broad line widths. In these systems GIPAW-DFT calculations also yielded excellent agreement with experimental values. Throughout this research, chlorine SSNMR has been shown to be a useful and effective means to study both organic and inorganic chlorides, with computational methods proving to be an important complement to experimental data.

In the past two decades polymer/clay nanocomposites (PCNs) have emerged as promising materials that exhibit remarkably improved properties when compared to conventional composites and pristine polymers. Such improvements strongly depend on the dispersion of clay nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. In spite of great efforts expended in characterizing clay dispersion, effective, simple and quantitative techniques are still needed. This work addresses this challenge by presenting new aspects of 1H solid-state NMR for quantifying clay dispersion in PCNs filled with clay containing paramagnetic ions. Employing these 1H solid-state NMR methods, some structure-processing-deformation relationships of PCNs were derived, and basic insights into nuclear relaxation and spin diffusion in PCNs were gained as well. Detailed models and analyses were described for 1H spin-lattice relaxation in the presence of paramagnetic clays in PCNs. Relaxation recovery was analytically correlated to clay dispersion in two ways: one is the initial relaxation recovery which is related to clay surface area, and the other is the spin-lattice relaxation time which is related to interparticle spacing. These two NMR observables were employed to quantitatively observe the evolution of clay morphology in poly(propylene)/clay (PP/MMT) nanocomposites upon equibiaxial stretching, as well as upon in situ uniaxial deformation. The initial relaxation recovery was independently utilized to determine the polymer-clay interfacial surface area and the degree of clay exfoliation. We demonstrated the capabilities of our models in quantitatively characterizing several materials, including poly(vinyl alcohol), nylon 6, poly(å-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and PP nanocomposites. These results were used to examine the dependence of clay morphology upon processing (strain ratio, strain rate, temperature), deformation (extension), component characteristics (polymer molecular weight, clay surface modification) and clay content. Effects of paramagnetic Fe3+ concentration and external magnetic field strength on 1H spin-lattice relaxation in PCNs were also investigated and discussed. In particular, low field separates the initial relaxation recovery into two stages: one related to clay content and the other related to the polymer-clay interfacial surface area. The low field was observed to enhance the paramagnetic contribution to the spin-lattice relaxation rate, increasing its sensitivity to clay morphology. In addition, measurements of long-distance spin diffusion coefficients for a variety of polymers and paramagnetic characteristics of organically modified clay were explored. Overall, the utility of NMR relaxometry in characterizing PCNs has been significantly expanded and successfully demonstrated in this dissertation.

No description available.

The functional oxides are performing materials showing interestant properties. The study of the local environment respect to the average struvture is essential for the deep understanding of the correlations between structure and properties ; this investigation of short and medium range can be performed with the use of solid state NMR techniques. In particular in this thesis three different classes of materials for applications in fields of optic and energy are considered : perovskite structure LaSrAlO4, the melilite system LaSr(Ga/Al)3O7 and the family of orthosylicates Li2(Fe/Mn)SiO4.

Various compounds were studied with solid-state 119Sn and 31P NMR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Connections were made between the shielding tensors and the geometric and electronic structures of the molecules. First, the 119Sn chemical shielding anisotropy of various para substituted tetraaryl tin compounds was shown to be dependent on the tilt angle of the phenyl rings. Tetrakis(o-tolyl) tin did not have the shielding anisotropy predicted by the tilt angle of the rings. It was suggested that ortho substitution distorts the structures of the phenyl rings causing the discrepancy. Analysis of the solid-state 31P NMR spectra of triphenylphosphorane ylides, Ph3P=CHC(O)R, determined that increasing the electron-donating effects of the R group decreased the δ33 component. Theoretical calculations showed that the component lay along the ylidic bond and was dependent on the difference in phosphorus-carbon bond lengths between the phenyl and ylidic bonds. Another study concerned the solid-state 31P NMR of the series of triphenylphosphine derivatives, PPh3-x(o-tolyl)x where x = 0 to 3. The addition of ortho methyl groups changed the position of the δ11 component which could be the result of the change in energy gap between the lone pair (HOMO) and σ* anti-bonding (LUMO). The solid-state 31P NMR spectra of deuterated piperazinium phosphonate and phosphonic acid were influenced by the shielding, dipolar and spin-spin interactions, as well as, second order quadrupolar effects. The spectrum of deuterated piperazinium phosphonate had a chemical shielding anisotropy of 130 ppm, an effective dipolar coupling of 2500 kHz and a one-bond phosphorus-deuterium J coupling of 90 Hz. The phosphorus-deuterium bond length was predicted to be 1.44(2) Å. A deuterium quadrupolar coupling constant of 104 kHz was obtained from the CP/MAS 2H spectrum. The non-axial symmetry of phosphonic acid complicated the analysis of the 31P spectrum. Phosphorus-deuterium bond lengths of 1.44(5) Å and 1.40(4) Å were obtained for the two inequivalent sites in the unit cell.

Organic-inorganic nanostructured composites are nowadays integrated in the field of material science and technology. They are used as advanced materials directly or as precursors to novel composites with potential applications in optics, mechanics, energy, catalysis and medicine. Many properties of these complex materials depend on conformational rearrangements in their inherently dynamic organic parts. The focus of this thesis is on the study of the molecular mobility in ordered nanostructured composites and lyotropic mesophases and also on the development of relevant solid-state NMR methodologies. In this work, a number of new experimental approaches were proposed for dipolar NMR spectroscopy for characterizing molecular dynamics with atomic-level resolution in complex solids and liquids. A new acquisition scheme for two-dimensional dipolar spectroscopy has been developed in order to expand the spectral window in the indirect dimension while using limited radio-frequency power. Selective decoupling of spin-1 nuclei for sign-sensitive determination of the heteronuclear dipolar coupling has been described. A new dipolar recoupling technique for rotating samples has been developed to achieve high dipolar resolution in a wide range of dipolar coupling strength. The experimental techniques developed herein are capable of delivering detailed model-independent information on molecular motional parameters that can be directly compared in different composites and their bulk analogs. Solid-state NMR has been applied to study the local molecular dynamics of surfactant molecules in nanostructured organic-inorganic composites of different morphologies. On the basis of the experimental profiles of local order parameters, physical motional models for the confined surfactant molecules were put forward. In layered materials, a number of motional modes of surfactant molecules were observed depending on sample composition. These modes ranged from essentially immobilized rigid states to highly flexible and anisotropically tumbling states. In ordered hexagonal silica, highly dynamic conformationally disordered chains with restricted motion of the segments close to the head group have been found. The results presented in this thesis provide a step towards the comprehensive characterization of the molecular states and understanding the great variability of the molecular assemblies in advanced nanostructured organic−inorganic composite materials. / <p>QC 20150225</p>