Buntkowsky, Gerd, and Michael Vogel. “Small Molecules, Non-Covalent Interactions, and Confinement.” Molecules 25, no. 14 (July 21, 2020): 3311.
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25143311
This review gives an overview of current trends in the investigation of small guest molecules, confined in neat and functionalized mesoporous silica materials by a combination of solid-state NMR and relaxometry with other physico-chemical techniques. The reported guest molecules are water, small alcohols, and carbonic acids, small aromatic and heteroaromatic molecules, ionic liquids, and surfactants. They are taken as characteristic role-models, which are representatives for the typical classes of organic molecules. It is shown that this combination delivers unique insights into the structure, arrangement, dynamics, guest-host interactions, and the binding sites in these confined systems, and is probably the most powerful analytical technique to probe these systems.