Sourcing and nuclear magnetic resonance: new applications for old materials

Abstract

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, which enables the characterization of structures of a variety of materials whatever their crystallinity/amorphous state, is used in the present work to determine the provenance of two raw materials, namely marbles and cherts. Regarding marbles, the 13C NMR signal of the carbonate function contains information about both the Fe content in its area and the presence of calcium substitutions in the calcite crystal in its linewidth. Regarding cherts, discriminant information is provided by both 29Si and 27Al NMR: the 29Si area signal depends on the paramagnetic ion content of the material, and the 27Al spectra give information both on the aluminosilicate content and its distribution in tecto- and layer-lattice aluminosilicates. As an application, we use the differences observed from one source to another to determine the provenance of archaeological finds.