title: Feasibility of probing boundary morphology of structured materials by 2D NMR q-space imaging.
abstract: It is well known that one-dimensional (1D) q-space imaging allows retrieval of structural information at cellular resolution. Here we demonstrate by simulation that boundary morphology of structured materials can be derived from 2D q-space mapping. Based on a finite-difference model for restricted diffusion, 2D q-space maps obtained from water diffusion inside apertures at various levels of asperity were simulated. The results indicate that the observed ring patterns (diffraction minima) reveal the boundary profiles of the apertures but become blurred in the case of significant variation in aperture size. For uniform size distribution of apertures, a quantitative measure of surface roughness can be established by means of spatial autocorrelation analysis. The results suggest that 2D q-space imaging may allow probing of the boundary morphology of structured materials and possibly biological cells.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging, 19104, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Chih Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: Felix W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Wehrli
authors.forename: Scott N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Dwight L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Jaggard
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Hackney
authors.forename: Suzanne W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Wehrli
mesh_terms: D002477:Cells / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D008961:Models, Structural; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / Q000379:methods*