Feasibility has been demonstrated for NMR tubes made from polymeric materials with novel geometries. These tubes offer greater sensitivity, easier sample recovery, greater flexibility and safety, reduced costs, improved response to magnetic fields, and new sampling possibilities. Sensitivity advantages may reduce the time required for many NMR acquisitions by nearly half. This proposal aims at creating tubes for use in the full range of standard 5 mm NMR probeheads for liquid samples, and for 1 mm nanoprobes. The tubes will be compatible with the most common solvents used in NMR. The project will bring the new designs to market readiness. Subcontractors will receive funding to fabricate materials in configurations that are not standard for industrial plastics, concentrating on improved dimensional specifications. Rigorous Quality Assurance procedures will be designed and implemented. User testing of the new tubes will occur in distinguished academic and pharmaceutical company environments. Almost every component in NMR spectrometers continues to improve, except for sample tubes. ARTech's plastic tubes will change that by improving sensitivity, permitting rapid handling without breakage, and allowing for affordable disposability. These advantages have no offsetting disadvantages and benefit both routine and highly sophisticated spectroscopists.
