This research project, which is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, focuses on the development of a toroid cavity probe for use as an NMR detector for electrophoresis. Professor Johnson and his student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will construct a toroid cavity probe, characterize its performance as an electrophoresis detector, and write programs necessary for the handling of data. This instrument will be able to detect all components in a mixture and the analysis time will be less than 100 msec. These measurements will provide information about the chemical interactions that occur in ordered media, such a micelles. This information will be useful in understanding the behavior of these materials as pseudo-stationary phases in many separation processes. In this project toroid cavity detectors will constructed and designed for use in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to permit studies of electrophoretic processes. In addition to the construction of this new detector for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, programs will be written to acquire and handle the data produced in these experiments. Analysis of all components in a mixture will be possible and the analysis time will be less than 100 milliseconds. This new instrumental capability will have applications ranging from microscopic imaging to the study of the interactions that occur in high pressure fluids.
