Gadolinium complexes electronic relaxation

Investigators should also check, when fitting the relaxivity profile of gadolinium(III) complexes, that electron relaxation is within the Redfield limit (Tie > x ), as otherwise good fits can be still obtained but with parameters that may be wrong by orders of magnitude 10). 

A general model for electronic relaxation of the Gd3+ S = 7/2 ion in various complexes in solution was presented by Rast el al. [86]. Contrary to the usual assumption, the electronic relaxation in their model is not only due to the effects of the transient zero field splitting, but is also strongly influenced by the static crystal field effect which is modulated by the random Brownian rotation of the complex. Experimental peak-to-peak widths of three gadolinium complexes could be well interpreted as a function of temperature and frequency using three static and one transient crystal field parameters. Moreover, their interpretation of experimental data did not require the addition of any field independent contribution to the line width like the spin-rotation mechanism. 

Outer sphere relaxation arises from the dipolar intermolecular interaction between the water proton nuclear spins and the gadolinium electron spin whose fluctuations are governed by random translational motion of the molecules (106). The outer sphere relaxation rate depends on several parameters, such as the closest approach of the solvent water protons and the Gdm complex, their relative diffusion coefficient, and the electron spin relaxation rate (107-109). Freed and others (110-112) developed an analytical expression for the outer sphere longitudinal relaxation rate, (l/Ti)os, for the simplest case of a force-free model. The force-free model is only a rough approximation for the interaction of outer sphere water molecules with Gdm complexes. 

The modified Florence program is well-suited for fitting the experimental NMRD profiles for slowly-rotating complexes of gadolinium(HI), an S = 7/2 ion characterized by relatively low ZFS, whose electron spin relaxation can be considered to be in the Redfield limit. An example of fitting an NMRD profile for aqueous protons, using different methods, for a protein adduct of a Gd(HI) chelate capable of accommodating one water molecule in the first coordination sphere, is displayed in Fig. 11. Other examples will be provided in Chapter 3. 

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