Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detects nuclei with a nuclear quadrupole moment. Unlike nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which uses an external magnetic field, NQR utilizes the intrinsic electric quadrupole moment of nuclei and the natural electric field gradient created by electron bonds in the local environment to split nuclear energy levels. NQR requires nuclei with a spin quantum number greater than 1/2, resulting in an aspherical charge distribution and electric quadrupole moment. The electric field gradient supplies the external field needed to produce resonance absorption, with the frequency dependent on the local electronic structure.
Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detects nuclei with a nuclear quadrupole moment. Unlike nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which uses an external magnetic field, NQR utilizes the intrinsic electric quadrupole moment of nuclei and the natural electric field gradient created by electron bonds in the local environment to split nuclear energy levels. NQR requires nuclei with a spin quantum number greater than 1/2, resulting in an aspherical charge distribution and electric quadrupole moment. The electric field gradient supplies the external field needed to produce resonance absorption, with the frequency dependent on the local electronic structure.
Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detects nuclei with a nuclear quadrupole moment. Unlike nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which uses an external magnetic field, NQR utilizes the intrinsic electric quadrupole moment of nuclei and the natural electric field gradient created by electron bonds in the local environment to split nuclear energy levels. NQR requires nuclei with a spin quantum number greater than 1/2, resulting in an aspherical charge distribution and electric quadrupole moment. The electric field gradient supplies the external field needed to produce resonance absorption, with the frequency dependent on the local electronic structure.
Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) detects nuclei with a nuclear quadrupole moment. Unlike nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which uses an external magnetic field, NQR utilizes the intrinsic electric quadrupole moment of nuclei and the natural electric field gradient created by electron bonds in the local environment to split nuclear energy levels. NQR requires nuclei with a spin quantum number greater than 1/2, resulting in an aspherical charge distribution and electric quadrupole moment. The electric field gradient supplies the external field needed to produce resonance absorption, with the frequency dependent on the local electronic structure.
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Nuclear Quadrupole
Resonance (NQR) What is NQR?
Nuclear quadrupole resonance or NQR is a technique related to
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which is used to detect atoms whose nuclei have a nuclear quadrupole moment.
In NMR, nuclei with spin ≥ 1/2 have a magnetic dipole moment so
that their energies are split by a magnetic field, allowing resonance absorption of energy related to the difference between the ground state energy and the excited state. What is NQR?
In NQR, on the other hand, nuclei with spin ≥ 1, such as 14N, 35Cl and 63Cu, also have an electric quadrupole moment so that their energies are split by an electric field gradient, created by the electronic bonds in the local environment. Quadrupole • A quadrupole is one of a sequence of configurations of electric charge or gravitational mass that can exist in ideal form, but it is usually just part of a multipole expansion of a more complex structure reflecting various orders of complexity. • To make a magnetic quadrupole we could place two identical bar magnets parallel to each other such that the North pole of one is next to the South of the other and vice versa. Quadrupole The result is a configuration like that in the figure with North poles in place of the positive charges and South in place of negative.
Such a configuration would have no dipole moment, and its field
will decrease at large distances faster than that of a dipole.
Again, a changing magnetic quadrupole moment will lead to the
production of electromagnetic radiation. Orbital Symmetry • Unlike NMR where a powerful external magnetic field is needed, quadrupole resonance takes advantage of a material´s natural electric field gradient
• The electrical gradients are available within certain
assymentrical atomic nuclei. Orbital Symmetry • These gradients are due to the distribution of the electrical charge and do therefore strongly depend on the chemical structure
• Why do some atomic nuclei have an electric
quadrupole moment? Physicists would say because they have a spin quantum number greater than 1/2.
• A more intuitive explanation is because the positive
electric charge these nuclei carry is not distributed with perfect spherical symmetry Orbital Symmetry
• Nuclear quadrupole resonance requires that the nuclei under
scrutiny display electric quadrupole moments. Such quadrupole moments arise when the distribution of positive electric charge in the nucleus is not perfectly spherical.
• For example, a slightly oblate (pumpkin-like) distribution of
positive charge (left) can be thought of as the sum of a quadrupolar distribution (center) and a spherical distribution (right). Orbital Symmetry Consider for a moment a spherical nucleus with its positive charge distributed uniformly throughout.
Now squeeze that nucleus in your mind's eye so that what was originally shaped like a basketball is flattened into a pumpkin.
A pumpkin of positive charge can be thought of, to a rough
approximation, as being the sum of a sphere of positive charge and two oppositely directed electric dipoles, one at the top and one at the bottom.
That is, the only requirement for an electric quadrupole moment is
that the nucleus be squashed (or stretched) along one axis. Orbital Symmetry Torque Acting on the Nucleus
Visualize quadrupole moment as two anti-parallel electric dipoles.
In a uniform electric field, net torque on the nucleus is zero. An axial symmetric electric field gradient .
produces a net turning torque proportional to
Electric quadrupole moment (EQM)
eQ = electric quadrupole moment, EQM
If I > ½, Nucleus has EQM. EQM measures deviation of nuclear charge distribution from spherical symmetry.
elongated flattened Charge distribution for nucleus, •which does not spin (i.e. I=0), •which has I= ½ •and (d) where I > ½ Electric-Field Gradient
• The intrinsic electric quadrupole moment of the
nucleus and the electric-field gradient imposed from outside together create distinct energy states.
• This result is analogous to the multiple energy
states in NMR, where the critical ingredients were the intrinsic magnetic dipole moment of the nucleus and a magnetic field imposed from the outside . Electric-Field Gradient
• The key difference between NMR and NQR is the
definition of "outside."
• In NMR, the outside magnetic field arises because
the experimenter has invested considerable effort in setting it up, perhaps using a superconducting electromagnet.
• Since unlike NMR, NQR is done in an environment
without a static (or DC) magnetic field, it is sometimes called "zero field NMR". Electric-Field Gradient
• In NQR, the required electric field (or, more precisely,
the required electric-field gradient) comes free:
• It reflects the local arrangement of electrons around
the nucleus under study.
• That arrangement, in turn, depends not only on the
nature of the atom but also on its chemical environment.
• This feature accounts for one of the chief benefits of
NQR -- the method is exquisitely sensitive to chemistry. Electric-Field Gradient
• Any nucleus with more than one unpaired nuclear
particle (protons or neutrons) will have a quadrupolar charge distribution.
• The NQR effect results from the interaction of this
quadrupole with an electric field gradient supplied by the non-uniform distribution electron density (from bonding electrons).
• So the technique is very sensitive to the nature of the
