The Chemistry Department at Colorado State University is requesting funds to purchase a new 400 MHz NMR spectrometer that will replace an eighteen year old Varian 300 MHz NMR with a Mercury-Plus console. The instrument will be managed within the Central Instrument Facility (CIF) that is a Colorado State University Foundational Core homed in the Department of Chemistry. The instrument will be in a brand new CORE laboratory that is part of the New Chemistry building that is under construction. At the present time, we do the greatest portion of our NMR work on four Varian NMR instruments with proton frequencies ranging from 300 to 500 MHz. One of these - the subject of this proposal- needs to be replaced. This 7.2 Tesla, 300 MHz NMR magnet is not shielded, console electronics are past their prime and failing, are comparatively noisy, functionally limited and challenging to repair or replace. Probes are worn out, have comparatively poor performance and are, frankly, fragile antiques. Despite this, the 300 NMR is still relied on for routine NMR studies in a self-service, walk-up mode. In contrast, the proposed 400 NMR will support full automation, be equipped with a sample changer, an automated high performance room temperature probe and a liquid nitrogen-cooled cold-probe. The magnet solenoid will be actively shielded and have a long hold helium Dewar that will be advantageous when coupled with our new, internally funded helium liquefying project. This combination of magnet field control, console technology, cold probe, sample changer and advanced software provides significantly better sensitivity, resolution and performance compared with the NMR that it replaces. Indeed, the NMR performance is sufficiently good that we expect to do some kinds of NMR, e.g. 13C and fast 2D, on this new 400 NMR rather than on the other, ostensibly, more powerful instruments used in the CIF at the present time. Finally, the actively shielded magnet provides for a much smaller overall system footprint and will allow us to make better use of valuable CORE laboratory space in our new Chemistry building. The new 400 NMR will serve NIH and other funded projects involved with synthesis, catalysis, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, bio--?polymer chemistry, light harvesting and many others. There are more than a dozen NIH projects supported by this proposal and a similar number of projects funded by other agencies, private foundations and groups. The demise of Agilent NMR in the market place makes this an especially timely proposal.
A 400 MHz NMR instrument system equipped with best?in-class probes, sample managing automation and an efficient, shielded superconducting magnet is proposed to be purchased by Colorado State University. The instrument will be operated and maintained in the University CORE Central Instrument Facility. This instrument provides important data that is used by NIH funded scientists to discover new materials that are used in medicine, health and safety, improved raw materials for manufacturing and energy storage.
