NMR Studies of Fossilized Wood

Fossil wood represents an exceptional and challenging material for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigation, as it embodies an intriguing multicompound chemistry and a complex and multifarious morphology. This rare plant remain, which managed to escape recycling, can offer through the various NMR applications a valuable contribution to the understanding of the biogeochemistry of wood fossilization. Furthermore, via NMR analysis, key issues of taphonomy, paleoecology, and plants' evolutionary history can be investigated, providing significant inputs to the science of paleontology. This review commences with the three main forms of fossilized wood, coalified, petrified, and mummified and the respective fossilization mechanisms. Then, it presents various NMR applications and provides some fundamental features of NMR itself such as (a) the appropriate nuclei that can be employed, (b) important aspects of solid-state C-13 NMR, (c) differences of 1D and 2D experiments and sequences, (d) the potential of quantitative analysis, (e) advantages of combining NMR with microscopy, and (f) some emerging NMR techniques such as the dynamic nuclear polarization solid-state NMR and the microimaging NMR. The main purpose of this work is to introduce the general principles required for a reliable and reproducible analysis of fossil wood with NMR. Additionally, it aims to present the range of research possibilities arising from NMR investigation and their expected outcomes. Finally, it anticipates that it can be a starting point for further research on fossilized wood and a motivation for developing novel NMR applications.