Chemometric Analysis of Two Dimensional Decay Data: Application to {sup 17}O NMR Relaxation Matrices

The use of {sup 17}O NMR spectroscopy as a tool to investigate aging in polymer systems has recently been demonstrated. Because the natural abundance of {sup 17}O is extremely low (0.037%), the use of labeled {sup 17}O{sub 2} during the oxidation of polymers produces {sup 17}O NMR spectra whose signals arise entirely from the degradation species (i.e. signals from the bulk or unaged material are not observed). This selective isotopic labeling eliminates the impact of interference from the unaged material, cause (1) above. As discussed by Alam et al. spectral overlap between different degradation species as well as errors in quantification remains a major difficulty in {sup 17}O NMR spectroscopy. As a demonstration of the DECRA and CTBSA methods, relaxation matrices obtained from {sup 17}O NMR for model alcohol systems are evaluated. The benefits and limitations of these newly developed chemometric techniques are discussed