Quantitative 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopy of cement and silica fume containing paramagnetic impurities

The low natural abundance and the long spin lattice relaxation time of 29Si lead to long measurement times and/or low signal-to-noise ratios using 29Si magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy. By contrast, samples containing paramagnetic iron ions have much shorter relaxation times, making measurements up to seven times more efficient, but at the same time making quantitative analysis unreliable. To solve the problem, the spin-lattice relaxation times of ordinary Portland cement (opc) and silica fume with and without iron content has been determined with inversion recovery experiments. The effect of varying the spectrum repetition time on the quantitative analysis is demonstrated for mixtures of opc with silica fume. For opc and silica fume with iron impurities repetition times as short as 5 s has permitted accurate quantitative analysis of the silicates present in these materials.