ABSTRACT
New applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to catalysis do not always accompany the development of new NMR techniques, perhaps because novel NMR ideas often originate from researchers who may be primarily interested in the technique itself rather than in any specific problem. On the other hand, the chemist who does have a practical problem often finds it hard to cope with the more refined methods and their physical background—particularly in solid-state NMR. This chapter bridges this gap by reviewing some modern NMR methods of particular interest for catalysis, stressing throughout the chemical aspects of the applications. While the main recent advance in NMR has been the development of multidimensional spectroscopy, novel catalytic applications include in situ studies and two-dimensional solid-state techniques such as correlation spectroscopy, spin diffusion, and quadrupole nutation. Completely new techniques have appeared, such as multiple-quantum spin counting, and old ones have developed in quite unexpected directions.
