The FID signal expected should be a few orders of magnitude larger than the background signal, as observed for o-phenylenediamine. Benzil and o-phenylenediamine have a similar number of hydrogen atoms in the compound (10 and 8 hydrogen atoms respectively) however, benzil has a measured time zero intensity of 1.20 x 10 5 signal per mole of hydrogen compared to o-phenylenediamine which has an intensity of 4.95 x 10 5 signal per mole of hydrogen. The missing signal is attributed the very rigid protons on the benzil structure, resulting in an exceptionally long T1 relaxation time. Kohda et al. reported the T1 relaxation time for benzil to be over 15 minutes at room temperature on a 10 MHz instrument. The data acquired yields an estimate of more than 30 minutes at 200 MHz. Making this a difficult and time-consuming measurement to make without specialized instrumentation. The product 1, is shown in Figure . The plot shows the product as synthesized, with no workup after milling. The main peak (peak C) has a decreased T1 from 38.4 s pre-milling to 13.0 s after milling. This indicates the formation of the product. The T2* stayed about the same value (5 µs and 9 µs pre-and post-milling). Furthermore, the formation of the byproduct water (peak A, T1 of 0.44 s and a T2* of 798 µs) confirms the progress of this reaction.