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Can Nuclear Magnetic Resonance break a molecule, like a resonant sound frequency can break glass?

I was wondering if it would be possible to break up a virus molecular structure using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Ideally, the host subject would be unaffected.

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2 Responses to “Can Nuclear Magnetic Resonance break a molecule, like a resonant sound frequency can break glass?”

  1. AtreyuRocks said :
    August 19th, 2010 at 3:58 am

    I would imagine that the energies required to break apart the molecular bonds within a virus would actually affect the host. Increasing the energies in an NMR would basically create a microwave. The resonating molecule, or virus, would create a lot of thermal energy and locally cook the host. NMR is used more for imaging. Look up some of the laser technology. They can fine tune a laser to destroy only specific molecules. This is all the info I can provide on this topic. Hopefully this helps a little.

  2. Biofreak said :
    August 19th, 2010 at 4:31 am

    No. These are very different processes. In the resonance in glass, you have an object that can have various number of sound vibrations (they are called phonons (no, not photons)). If you apply sound at the right frequency, the phonons will be absorbed by the glass and enough of them will build up until there is too much energy in the glass and it shatters.

    In NMR, you have a nuclear state that is either spin up or spin down. The two states (up and down) have different energy levels. The spacing between them is important because if you apply radiation that has exactly the right energy, it will cause one state to flip into the other. So the resonance is when you apply the right energy radiation. The more radiation at that wavelength you apply, the faster the states will flip between each other. But, since there are only two states, once you add energy to flip from the down state to the up state, you can’t add any more energy. If you try to, all you will do is actually extract energy and flip back down.

    In the glass case, you are talking about phonons, which have a nearly infinite number of energy states, so you can keep adding energy until something fails.




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