Static exchange technique

The time required to conduct an interfacial tension experiment depends largely on the properties of the surfactants and less on the chosen measurement method. A notable exception is the drop volume technique, which, due to the measurement principle, requires substantial ly more time than the drop shape analysis method. Regardless of the method used, 1 day or more may be required to accurately determine, e.g., the adsorption isotherm (unit D3.s) of a protein. This is because, at low protein concentrations, it can take several hours to reach full equilibrium between proteins in the bulk phase and those at the surface due to structural rearrangement processes. This is especially important for static interfacial tension measurements (see Basic Protocol 1 and Alternate Protocols 1 and 2). If the interfacial tension is measured before the exchange of molecules... 

In fact, two-dimensional solid-state NMR is far superior to one-dimensional techniques for studying structure and dynamics123. In particular, the two-dimensional exchange NMR spectrum124 of a static sample is identical with a two-time distribution function125. Thus a two-dimensional NMR spectrum, which is detected for a fixed mixing time, is an image of the state of the dynamic process under study at that time. 

It is not clear, whether the experimentally observed random local freezing of the deuterons in the O-D—O bonds in deuteron glasses corresponds to a true thermodynamic phase transition or whether one deals with a dynamic phenomenon which only seems static because of the finite observation time of the experimental techniques. The recently observed42 splitting between the field-cooled and zero-field dielectric susceptibilities below an instability temperature Tf seems to speak for the occurrence of an Almeida-Thouless-like thermodynamic phase transition in deuteron glasses. It is well known that ID NMR and EPR allow a direct measurement of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter qEA only on time scales of 10 3-10 8 s and 2D exchange NMR possibly seems to be a better technique for such slow motions. 

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