Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

In this chapter a brief and simplified description of the most important features of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is presented. In the first part, the physical principles and definition of basic NMR phenomena like spin, magnetic moment, magnetization, etc. are given. Then the behavior of NMR samples exposed to the effect of external magnetic fields is discussed with explanation of the related terms like spin precession, spin relaxation, free induction decay (fid). The effect of rf pulses, description of the time domain NMR experiments, as well as basic parts of a typical NMR spectrometer/imager are given. In the third part fundamentals of NMR imaging are shortly discussed and illustrated. The basis of NMR spectroscopy, with the definition of related spectral parameters like chemical shift, indirect spin–spin interaction, direct dipolar spin–spin interaction, nuclear Overhauser effect (noe) are presented. In the last part, the spectroscopic biochemical applications of NMR with the emphasis on metabolic studies are shortly discussed.