We report the first single crystal deuteron NMR spectra of CD3 groups which display the socalled ±ß, ±(|α| ± ß) and ±(2|α| ± ß) lines characteristic of rotational tunneling in a sufficiently clear manner to allow a quantitative comparison with the respective theory developed in 1988 by the group of W. Müller-Warmuth. The molecular system we study is aspirin-CD₃. We recorded spectra for differently oriented single crystals and measured spin-lattice relaxation times T₁ in a wide temperature range. At 12.5 K we exploit the dependence of the ±(|α| ± ß) and ±(2|α| ± ß) lines on the orientation of the applied field B₀ for determining the equilibrium orientation of the CD₃ group in the crystal lattice. The spectra display features which allow, by comparison with simulated spectra, a measurement of the tunnel frequency v_t. Its low temperature limit is (2.7 ± 0.1) MHz. It allows to infer the height V₃ of the potential V(φ) in which the CD₃ group moves, provided that this potential is purely threefold. We get V₃ = (47.2 ± 0.5) meV. The transition from the tunneling to the classical, fast reorienting regime occurs in the 15 K ≲ T ≲ 35 K temperature range. In this range we observe a broadening, merging and eventually narrowing of the ± |α| and ±2|α| lines in very much the way predicted by Heuer. His theory, however, must be extended by taking into account all librational levels. The behaviour of the ± ß lines in the transition temperature range signalizes a reduction of the observable tunnel frequency with increasing temperature. This reduction allows an independent measurement of the potential height and represents a test of the assumption of a purely threefold potential. From the T₁ -data we derive the temperature dependence of the correlation time Ƭc of the reorientational jumps. The plot of log Ƭc vs. 1 /T follows a straight line for more than five decades. From its slope we get yet another independent number for the potential height. It agrees well with the other ones, which confirms the assumption of the essentially threefold potential V(φ) in aspirin-CD₃.

Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) is an amorphous polymer employed in many technological applications. In order to highlight the relationships between macroscopic properties and dynamics at a microscopic level, motions of the main-chain and of the propyl side-chains were investigated between T_g − 288 °C and T_g + 55 °C, with T_g indicating the glass transition temperature. To this aim, a combination of solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods was applied to two purposely synthesized PVB isotopomers: one fully protonated and the other perdeuterated on the side-chains. ¹H time domain NMR and ¹H field cycling NMR relaxometry experiments, performed across and above T_g, revealed that the dynamics of the main-chain corresponds to the α-relaxation associated to the glass transition, which was previously characterized by dielectric spectroscopy. A faster secondary relaxation was observed for the first time and ascribed to side-chains. The geometry and rate of motions of the different groups in the side-chains were characterized below T_g by ²H NMR spectroscopy.