Local magnetism in palladium bionanomaterials probed by muon spectroscopy.

Palladium bionanomaterial was manufactured using the sulfate-reducing bacterium, Desulfovibrio desulfuricansm, to reduce soluble Pd(II) ions to cell-bound Pd(0) in the presence of hydrogen. The biomaterial was examined using a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) to measure bulk magnetisation and by Muon Spin Rotation Spectroscopy (µSR) which is uniquely able to probe the local magnetic environment inside the sample. Results showed behaviour attributable to interaction of muons both with palladium electrons and the nuclei of hydrogen trapped in the particles during manufacture. Electronic magnetism, also suggested by SQUID, is not characteristic of bulk palladium and is consistent with the presence of nanoparticles previously seen in electron micrographs. We show the first use of µSR as a tool to probe the internal magnetic environment of a biologically-derived nanocatalyst material.

Periodic ab initio calculation of nuclear quadrupole parameters as an assignment tool in solid-state NMR spectroscopy: applications to 23Na NMR spectra of crystalline materials.

Periodic ab initio HF calculations using the CRYSTAL code have been used to calculate (23)Na NMR quadrupole parameters for a wide range of crystalline sodium compounds including Na(3)OCl. An approach is developed that can be used routinely as an alternative to point-charge modelling schemes for the assignment of distinct lines in (23)Na NMR spectra to specific crystallographic sodium sites. The calculations are based on standard 3-21 G and 6-21 G molecular basis sets and in each case the same modified basis set for sodium is used for all compounds. The general approach is extendable to other quadrupolar nuclei. For the 3-21 G calculations a 1:1 linear correlation between experimental and calculated values of C(Q)((23)Na) is obtained. The 6-21 G calculations, including the addition of d-polarisation functions, give better accuracy in the calculation of eta((23)Na). The sensitivity of eta((23)Na) to hydrogen atom location is shown to be useful in testing the reported hydrogen-bonded structure of Na(2)HPO(4).