Electron paramagnetic resonance
spectroscopy is sometimes called electron spin resonance, and usually spoken of by the
acronym EPR.
In EPR, one measures the
frequency at which various molecules absorb
photons at or near the
microwave frequency range while in a magnetic field. The resultant
spectrum is due to the absorbance of
energy coupled to a change in the alignment of an
electron spin from
parallel to
antiparallel to said external
magnetic field. This ‘resonant frequency’ varies linearly with the strength of the applied magnetic field (a property known as the
Zeeman effect.) While you might think that as there are a lot of electrons in most substances, these spectra must be pretty complicated, in one sense this is not true: only
unpaired electrons will absorb these photons (paired electrons will merely swap spins, and no energy gets absorbed.) Thus only
organic free radicals and
transition metals will give an EPR signal.
In practice, a typical EPR experiment is pretty simple: One merely places a solution of the molecule of interest in a resonant cavity (a sample compartment with a length calculated to maximize the
photon density at the sample), shoots microwave radiation through the sample, and measures the fraction of energy absorbed using a microwave detector. The microwave energy is most often generated at about 9.5
GHz (a
wavelength of about 32mm) by a vacuum tube known as a
klystron. The applied magnetic field is varied between 0 and 5-6
Tesla and absorbance is observed when the
Zeeman effect brings the resonant frequency of the sample into the emission frequency of the klystron.
Why do it this way? Because it is relatively cheap to make a variable strength
electromagnet but very expensive to make a variable frequency microwave generator. Klystrons have been relatively cheap since
WWII as they were used extensively in early
radar installations.
EPR is principally used in three areas:
Chemistry: Synthetic chemists, especially the
inorganic variety, use EPR to characterize the molecules they have created.
Biophysics: Many
biomolecules contain either organic free radicals (mostly
flavins and
quinones) or transition metals (see
metalloproteins). EPR isn’t currently used much in
biomedicine for obvious reasons (think about what happens in your microwave!)
Materials Science: Metallurgists use EPR to look for small cracks or strains in metals (often called ‘point defects’.) This is how they examine wear and tear in things like airplane wings. The same methods are used to examine
semiconductors intended for use in things like
microchips.