Biller, J.R., et al., Frequency dependence of electron spin relaxation times in aqueous solution for a nitronyl nitroxide radical and perdeuterated-tempone between 250MHz and 34GHz. J. Magn. Reson., 2012. 225(0): p. 52-57.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23123770
Electron spin relaxation times of perdeuterated tempone (PDT) 1 and of a nitronyl nitroxide (2-(4-carboxy-phenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-3-oxide-1-oxyl) 2 in aqueous solution at room temperature were measured by 2-pulse electron spin echo (T(2)) or 3-pulse inversion recovery (T(1)) in the frequency range of 250MHz to 34GHz. At 9GHz values of T(1) measured by long-pulse saturation recovery were in good agreement with values determined by inversion recovery. Below 9GHz for 1 and below 1.5GHz for 2,T(1) approximately T(2), as expected in the fast tumbling regime. At higher frequencies T(2) was shorter than T(1) due to incomplete motional averaging of g and A anisotropy. The frequency dependence of 1/T(1) is modeled as the sum of spin rotation, modulation of g and A-anisotropy, and a thermally-activated process that has maximum contribution at about 1.5GHz. The spin lattice relaxation times for the nitronyl nitroxide were longer than for PDT by a factor of about 2 at 34GHz, decreasing to about a factor of 1.5 at 250MHz. The rotational correlation times, tau(R) are calculated to be 9ps for 1 and about 25ps for 2. The longer spin lattice relaxation times for 2 than for 1 at 9 and 34GHz are due predominantly to smaller contributions from spin rotation that arise from slower tumbling. The smaller nitrogen hyperfine couplings for the nitronyl 2 than for 1 decrease the contribution to relaxation due to modulation of A anisotropy. However, at lower frequencies the slower tumbling of 2 results in a larger value of omegatau(R) (omega is the resonance frequency) and larger values of the spectral density function, which enhances the contribution from modulation of anisotropic interactions for 2 to a greater extent than for 1.