ABSTRACT
I. SCOPE This chapter is intended for researchers in chemistry and related fields who wish to augment their knowledge of the possible application of microscopic nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging to important problems in materials and life sciences. We provide a cursory background on magnetic resonance, with a somewhat more detailed description of specific imaging experiments most commonly used. The bulk of this chapter is devoted to selected applications of NMR imaging that demonstrate its versatility and unique capability of obtaining chemical and functional information in a noninvasive way. Rather than an exhaustive review of the literature, this chapter is intended as a starting point from which an interested reader may further explore the realm of possible applications. As opposed to the other molecular level techniques described here, the NMR imaging experiment yields information on a length scale of tens of micrometers. We demonstrate that one can, within the constraints of this length scale, simultaneously elucidate chemical, spatial, and dynamic properties of both biological and nonbiological materials.
