Nuclear magnetic resonance line shapes development

Solid state materials have been studied by nuclear magnetic resonance methods over 30 years. In 1953 Wilson and Pake ) carried out a line shape analysis of a partially crystalline polymer. They noted a spectrum consisting of superimposed broad and narrow lines which they ascribed to rigid crystalline and amorphous material respectively. More recently several books and large articles have reviewed the tremendous developments in this field, particularly including those of McBrierty and Douglas 2) and the Faraday Symposium (1978)3) —on which this introduction is largely based. 

From its very beginning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to unravel dynamic processes in amorphous matter, where the high selectivity of this technique was exploited. Recent progress has largely benefited from the development of multidimensional NMR spectroscopy, significantly extending the traditional techniques such as spin-lattice relaxation and line-shape analyses. Modern NMR techniques helped a lot to understand the molecular dynamics in disordered systems such as the a-process. 

---