Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for l > 1 spins in dynamically heterogeneous systems with chemical exchange among environments.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra for nuclei with spin l > 1 are considered in cases in which the observed nucleus may sample a rotationally immobilized and an isotropic environment that are coupled by a chemical exchange process. Spectra are simulated for the central (1/2, -1/2) transition for a 3/2 nucleus as a function of the concentrations of the two environments and as a function of the exchange rate between them. It is shown that a crucial feature determining the shape of the observable spectra is the spatial extent or the local order in the immobilized phase. In the case for which all rotationally immobilized sites sampled by the exchanging nucleus are identically oriented but where there is a distribution of these microdomain orientations with respect to the magnetic field direction, a powder pattern for the central transition is observed that carries whatever dynamic information may be derived from it. In the fast exchange limit, the width of the powder pattern scales inversely with the concentration of the isotropic environment as usual. In the intermediate exchange regimes, a complex line shape results that may mask the anisotropic character of the spectrum. In the slow exchange limit, superposition of the spectral contributions results; however, if the isotropic environment concentration is significantly larger than the anisotropic environment concentration, the anisotropic contribution is very difficult to detect because of the dynamic range problem and the possibly large difference in the effective line widths. In the case for which the exchanging nucleus samples a considerable distribution of rotationally immobilized site orientations, the anisotropic character of the spectrum is lost and a super-Lorentzian line shape results. These effects are demonstrated experimentally by 35Cl nuclear magnetic resonance spectra obtained on a lamellar liquid crystal that is modified with the addition of a thiolmercurate to provide a site of large quadrupole coupling constant and with cross-linked bovine serum albumin gels.