Diffusion NMR studies of complex liquid formulations

This is an introductory review on the diffusion Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (dNMR) as a powerful tool to characterise different types of formulations. Such a technique is nowadays available on most of the NMR instrumentation and enables the determination of the distribution of components and the microstructure of the system. We start with a description, addressed to the formulators, of the methodological strategies to be used to determine the microstructure of different systems. The approaches to be used to quantify the partition/binding equilibria are then sketched. Then, we review recent dNMR applications to formulations containing ionic liquids, surfactants, polymers, and gels.