ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of hydrogen (1H) nuclei, also known as proton NMR. We are concerned specically with 1H-NMR relaxometry studies of water mobility (as a probe of the physical environment), where the data analysis is performed in the time domain. This needs to be distinguished from NMR spectroscopy (see Chapter 6), where the data analysis is performed in the frequency domain to determine atomic structures (local bonding environment). An NMR spectrometer can be used for many applications. The scope of this chapter is limited to common applications of one-dimensional (1D) 1H-NMR relaxometry for characterising the physical structures and properties of cementitious materials. Basic experiments such as setting up and carrying out pulse sequences to gain longitudinal (T1) and transverse (T2) relaxation times are treated. Other, more complicated NMR experiments exist such as twodimensional (2D) relaxation time correlations, molecular self-diffusion, spatially resolved NMR (imaging) and cryoporometry, for example; these experiments are not discussed here. For more information, a recent review describes the complete scope of 1H-NMR experiments already applied to cement-based materials (Valori et al. 2013).
