Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility (NMR Facility)

nmr-facility

This NMR Facility has capabilities for solution-state, solid-state, gaseous-state, rheo, diffusion, and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). A short introduction to NMR spectroscopy can be found here.

The Chemistry Department currently houses 6 NMR spectrometers:

There are three state-of-the-art Bruker Avance III NMR spectrometers, with proton frequencies of 300, 400 and 600 MHz. They were purchased in 2012, 2011, and 2011, respectively. These are mainly used for research, but also for teaching, e.g., in inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry. The 300 MHz, 400 MHz, and 600 MHz NMR magnets are always at field and never turned off. They are kept in the superconducting state by liquid helium that is insulated by vacuum and liquid nitrogen. Nevertheless. a small amount of helium is boiled off continuously and recycled with a sophisticated helium recovery system. Variable temperature operation is available on all three Bruker spectrometers. To enable the usage of very low temperature (up to 77K, liquid nitrogen), a continuous supply of dried air with very low dew point is maintained.

Bruker Avance III 600 MHz NMR 

The Avance III 600 is a three channel system with Z-axis gradients that is capable of performing experiments on both solids and solutions. Three probes cover a wide range of experiments.

Bruker Avance III 400 MHz NMR

The main workhorse instrument for most users. There are three solution-state NMR probes available for this instrument. It is possible to observe a wide range of nuclei, ranging from high sensitivity observation of proton, carbon, phosphorous, and fluorine to allowing observation of a large number of more exotic nuclei. This instrument is set up for rapid throughput of routine samples. It is capable of performing most modern liquid phase NMR experiments including state of the art two- and three-dimensional experiments with pulsed field gradients. It is available to departmental users to solve structural problems requiring high resolution capabilities.

Bruker Avance III 300 MHz wide-bore NMR

Several NMR probes are available for this instrument that make it especially versatile and capable of studies in solution, solid, rheo, diffusion and MRI (magnet resonance imaging). The wide bore (89 mm) enables the study of larger-diameter samples.

Anasazi Eft-60 NMR

There are three Anasazi Eft-60 NMR spectrometers at 60 MHz proton frequency. These were purchased in 2015 and are mainly used for undergraduate teaching, and are incorporated into the organic chemistry curriculum. These three NMR spectrometer have proton and carbon capabilities in 1D and 2D. The proton resonance frequency is at around 60 MHz. A wide array of experiments are available and new ones are being prepared. The three Anasazi Eft-60 NMR spectrometers employ a permanent magnet that needs to be kept at constant temperature. Although it is possible to adjust the temperature, we prefer to keep the temperature constant to avoid temperature-related drifts of the magnet.

Access to the facility is restricted to authorized personnel. Please read the safety information here. The main NMR Facility is located in the basement of the Physical Sciences building (PS 13) and is open to authorized users around the clock. Remote data access within the university is possible. Please read the operation instructions for the Bruker instruments and the operation instructions for the Anasazi instruments. There are many users throughout the university, academia, industry and beyond, and many collaborations. The facility assists in the implementation of specialized methods and training.

The purpose of the NMR facility is to serve the UW research community, other academic users, the state of Wyoming, and all other interested parties, in designing experiments, training students, analyzing data. Collaborations are encouraged that will lead to publications, proposals, and funding. If a grant proposal is submitted, it is a good idea to itemize expenses and take account of the NMR charges. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer NMR services for free. It is very expensive to run a NMR facility, in part because of the cryogen costs (liquid helium, liquid nitrogen) that have to be periodically replenished around the superconducting coils. A lot of effort has been put into keeping the prices as low as possible to facilitate research.

We would like to encourage the use of these instruments as much as possible, for internal and external users. We offer different types of NMR service, including full service that includes making up the samples to NMR requirements (the samples may be submitted personally or using some type of mail service), running the experiments, processing and analyzing the data, and sending a report by email or by post. We also offer training and it is possible to register for access to the laboratory. We also want to offer NMR service for community colleges as we know that many of them do not have adequate in-house NMR machines (and not a lot of money either, but don't let this stop you from contacting us) and may want to have their students check about their progress in the chemical laboratory and make sure that their expected product was actually formed. Many of the samples can be processed the same day as they are received at the NMR laboratory. This ensures that feedback is received in a timely fashion. Please contact Dr. Alexander Goroncy to discuss your experiments.

The facility has been used for many NMR applications. Please look here for some research output. Examples include structural determination, food analysis, plant morphology using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), engineering (rheology, diffusion, films, a lot of it in the solid-state), petroleum and coal (looking into rocks in order to look into transport properties, and for converting them into value-added chemicals, or for carbon dioxide capture to reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change).

As considerable resources are needed to run this facility, it is expected that every user contributes to the facility and promotes the facility as much as possible. A fee system has been implemented, that is competitive within this geographic area. Pay the fees 

Furthermore, it is appreciated if the users mention the facility in print and in other forms of publications (seminars, talks).

NMR facility personnel should be acknowledged as appropriate.

Co-authorship: NMR Facility personnel should be co-authors if they contribute ideas, analyze data, or write any portion of the paper.

Acknowledgment: NMR Facility personnel should receive acknowledgment for routine help such as running service spectra, training students, or suggesting the routine appropriate NMR experiments. Authors should inform NMR Facility personnel that they have been acknowledged.

Page created by Alexander Goroncy.

 
Contact Us

Chemistry Department

Department 3838

1000 E. University Avenue

Physical Science Bldg 204

Laramie, WY 82071

Phone: 307-766-4363

Fax: 307-766-2807

Email: chemistry@uwyo.edu

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