Chapter 10: Diffusive Dynamics in Porous Materials as Probed by NMR Relaxation-based Techniques Check Access

We present some examples showing how nuclear magnetic relaxation techniques allow for characterizing fundamental properties such as surface correlation times, diffusion coefficients and dynamical surface affinity (NMR wettability) of various aprotic and protic liquids embedded in porous disordered materials. We mainly focus on the nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) of the longitudinal relaxation time T₁(ω₀) and 2D spin correlation (T₁–T₂ and T₂–T₂) techniques for probing these dynamical properties in calibrated micropores and cement-based materials. The NMRD is also shown to separate oil and water in real multimodal macroporous carbonate petroleum rocks. Last, we show that this technique allows probing the dynamics and wettability of oil and water in the organic and mineral dual microporosity of shale oil rocks. This allows interpreting our 2D T₁–T₂ correlation spectra that could be made down-hole, thus giving invaluable tool for investigating oil and gas recovery on these important porous rocks.