Water proton relaxation in heterogeneous systems

Transverse, longitudinal and rotating frame water proton relaxation time distributions in saturated, randomly packed silica suspensions are analysed using a simple one-dimensional numerical model of the microstructure which explicitly incorporates variable pore connectivity. Despite its simplicity the model provides a unified description not only of the relaxation behaviour but also of macroscopic diffusion measurements, magnetization transfer experiments and pulsed field gradient studies. The same approach should be useful in many heterogeneous biopolymer systems.