The 1H–13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP MAS) kinetics was studied in poly(vinyl phosphonic acid) (pVPA), i.e. material with high degrees of freedom of proton motion along H-bonded chains. It has been shown that the CP kinetic data for the adjacent 1H–13C spin pairs can be described in the frame of the isotropic spin-diffusion approach. The rates of spin diffusion and spin-lattice relaxation as well as the parameters accounting for spin coupling and the effective size of spin clusters have been determined. The local order parameter S ≈ 0.63±0.02, determined as the ratio of the measured dipolar 1H–13C coupling constant and the calculated static dipolar coupling constant, is significantly lower than the values deduced for related sites in other polymers and in series of amino acids. This means that the local disorder of the C–H bonds in pVPA is between those for rather rigid C–H bond configurations having S = 0.8–1.0 and highly disordered –CH3 groups (S ~ 0.4). This effect can be attributed to the presence of the proton transfer path where proton motion is easy to activate. The activation energy for the proton motion Ea = 59±7 kJ/mol was determined from the impedance spectroscopy data analysing the temperature and frequency dependences of the complex dielectric permittivity of pVPA. The rates of proton spin-lattice relaxation and spin diffusion are of the same order and both run in the time scale of milliseconds.

The room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) 1-decyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide [C10mim][Br], dissolved in water, was studied using 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopy. The manifestation of phase transitions and fine features of molecular motion in NMR spectra upon changing temperature and composition have been analysed. The 1 H NMR line shape typical for anisotropic fluids with zero biaxiality (asymmetry) of magnetic shielding and the chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) of ca 0.33 ppm was observed and attributed to water molecules. CSA values for 13 C nuclei have been found in the range of 1.2-1.7 ppm. The difference between lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LC) ionogel phase and the solid one has been revealed, where the motions of RTIL and water molecules have been found to be dynamically segregated. The anisotropic 13 C NMR signal shape at 16.89 ppm shows the difference between LC ionogel and the lamellar phases, where usually the decreasing order parameter moving along hydrocarbon chain from the polar head is observed. It indicates, that the terminal −CH3 groups are more ordered and the supramolecular structures of [C10mim][Br], similar to some higher micellar RTIL aggregates are expected. In order to explain the experimental observations, the quantum chemistry DFT calculations of 1 H and 13 C magnetic shielding tensors of [C10mim] [Br] and various H-bond structures of H2O were performed.

O NMR spectra of pyridine N-oxide (PyO) complexes with the acids – acetic (AA), cyanoacetic (CyA), propiolic (PA), trichloroacetic (TCA), trifluoroacetic (TFA), hydrochloric (HCl) and methanesulfonic (MSA) – as well as some related molecules with intramolecular H-bonds (4-substituted picolinic acid N-oxides) were studied in an acetonitrile (ACN) solution. In order to evaluate the effect of proton positioning along the O–H…O bond on the measured chemical shifts the full geometry optimization was carried out, and 17O magnetic shielding tensors were calculated using density functional theory (DFT). The modified hybrid functional PBE1PBE with the 6-311++G** basis set and the gauge-including atomic orbital (GIAO) approach were applied. The solvent effect was taken into account by a polarized continuum model using the integral equation formalism (IEFPCM). Two stable structures were deduced for the PyO complexes with TCA and TFA that correspond to the H-bonds with and without proton transfer (PT). Two minima on the potential surface were separated by ca 0.2 Å. The experimental 17O NMR spectra have shown that the PyO-TCA complex in ACN can be considered as H-bonding with incipient PT, whereas it is known from neutron diffraction that in its crystalline state PT occurs. The proton location in PyO-TFA due to the thermally induced proton sharing was found at the middle point. The 17O NMR data for the acids with an intramolecular H-bond (nitroPANO, PANO and methoxyPANO) deviate from the general trend. The factors that can cause it, such as the substitution effect, persistence of nano-crystallites in a solution due to a low solubility, etc., have been discussed.

The 1H → 31P cross-polarization (CP) kinetics in the nanostructured calcium hydroxyapatite (nano-CaHA) was measured under moderate (5 kHz) magic-angle spinning (MAS) rate. This material was chosen as it contains the distanced 1H–31P spin pairs and the interactions between them are characterized by a relatively low dipolar coupling (b) that could be comparable with the spin-diffusion rates (R). Therefore, the physical legitimacy to use the secular solution of the quantum Liouville–von Neumann equation is doubtful. The semi-nonsecular model of spin dynamics was applied, and the results were compared with those obtained by the secular approach. The comparable results obtained by both models show that the secular model is applicable, with certain reservation, also in the case of |b| ≈ R. The extremely high anisotropy of spin diffusion in the nano-CaHA was deduced. This can be a matter of the applied approach, as the interactions of the 31P spins with the proton bath were neglected in both models. The high anisotropy could also be caused by the physical reasons that stem from the structural and proton diffusion features of CaHA. This material belongs to low-dimensional proton conductors possessing a large motional freedom for protons along OH– chains.

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