Enhancing NMR Excellence at the University of Bath - EPSRC Capital Award for Core Equipment 2022

提高巴斯大学 NMR 的卓越水平 - EPSRC 核心设备资本奖 2022

• 批准号: EP/X034585/1
• 负责人: Anneke Lubben
• 金额: $ 111.49万
• 依托单位: University of Bath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX034585%2F1
• 关键词: Enhancing; NMR; Excellence; University; Bath

This proposal will fund a refresh and enhancement of one of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers within the Material and Chemical Characterisation (MC2) Core Research Facility at Bath. NMR is a crucial analytical tool for the characterisation of a diverse range of samples, including polymers, novel drug candidates, new catalysts and a wide variety of biological materials. There are currently seven NMR spectrometers supporting research at Bath. One is the focal point of the Dynamic Reaction Monitoring (DReaM) suite, commissioned in 2017. Two are advanced level instruments used in 'hands-on' mode by experienced users investigating complex research problems, and these have benefitted from significant refresh programmes over the past three years. Lastly, but crucially, there are four open-access workhorse instruments, which account for 63% of our total NMR usage. These instruments are the first port of call for most researchers and are used to analyse many thousands of samples on a 24/7 basis, providing rapid, high-quality data. This mix of NMR spectrometers is crucial to enabling the wide range of experiments and techniques required by the diverse user-base within MC2, and underpins many cross-disciplinary collaborative projects both within and between the Faculties of Science, and Engineering & Design. The focus of this proposal is to refresh one of the two oldest of these core underpinning open-access instruments; both of which were installed in 2010, and are fast approaching end of life. These two instruments no longer provide cutting-edge or efficient NMR experiments, and only operate at half the sensitivity of modern equivalents. Major issues have been experienced on both aged instruments since August 2021, causing significant (often daily) delays in data acquisition and a repeated need for intervention from MC2 staff to restore functionality. Instrument Specialist time is currently focussed on keeping the instruments serviceable, time which could be better spent developing methods, engaging with new users and accelerating research. What makes this request increasingly urgent is that manufacturer support and the associated supply of spare parts are not guaranteed beyond 2024.Even though these two instruments have become increasingly unreliable, they still remain essential to our user base - in the last year alone they have been used to obtain data from more than 15,000 experiments. Over the past five years these two instruments have been a critical tool for researchers from 43 research groups from the Departments of Chemistry and Life Sciences, and the Faculty of Engineering & Design, totalling over 170 users. The loss of one or both of these instruments would have a devastating impact on the delivery of this research and the capacity of the NMR service as a whole.We intend to refresh the most important and highest specification of these spectrometers (500 MHz) by replacing the console (which provides the electronics to run the experiments), adding the latest generation of NMR probe (the component that acquires the experimental data) and installing a new sample changer (which can hold up to 60 samples at a given time). We will retain the existing NMR magnet, purchased in 2010, as this has can be expected to be viable for at least 15 more years, and align with our environmental sustainability aims.This approach offers a value for money upgrade to maintain state of the art core NMR instrumentation at Bath, and not only meets our immediate requirements but also greatly enhances sample sensitivity and capability. We expect to double the sensitivity of the instrument, which in itself will reduce acquisition times. We will also be able to implement new experimental strategies, such as acquiring data on two experiments simultaneously. Thus the new technology will significantly increase sample turnaround and throughput, and allow for data to be obtained on samples that are currently not possible.

该提案将资助材料和化学表征（MC2）核心研究设施中的核磁共振（NMR）光谱仪之一的刷新和增强。 NMR是表征各种样品的关键分析工具，包括聚合物，新型药物候选物，新催化剂和各种各样的生物学材料。目前有七个NMR光谱仪支持BATH的研究。一个是2017年委托的动态反应监控（DREAM）套件的焦点。有经验的用户通过调查复杂的研究问题的经验丰富的用户使用了两种用于“动手”模式的高级级别工具，并且在过去三年中，这些仪器受益于重大的刷新计划。最后，但至关重要的是，有四种开放式主力仪器，占我们NMR总使用量的63％。这些仪器是大多数研究人员的第一个呼叫港，用于24/7的基础分析数千个样本，提供快速，高质量的数据。 NMR光谱仪的这种组合对于实现MC2中各种用户群所需的广泛实验和技术至关重要，并且是科学和工程与设计学院内部及其之间的许多跨学科协作项目。该提议的重点是刷新这些核心核心仪器中最古老的核心之一。这两者都是在2010年安装的，并且快速接近生命的尽头。这两种仪器不再提供尖端或有效的NMR实验，而仅在现代等效物的灵敏度的一半中运行。自2021年8月以来，两种老年工具都遇到了重大问题，导致数据获取的重大延迟，并且反复需要MC2员工干预以恢复功能。仪器专家的时间目前着重于保持仪器的可用时间，可以更好地花费时间来开发方法，与新用户互动并加速研究。使该请求越来越紧迫的是，制造商的支持和相关的备件供应不能在2024年以内保证。尽管这两种工具变得越来越不可靠，但它们仍然对我们的用户群仍然至关重要 - 仅在去年，它们就被用来从15,000多个实验中获取数据。在过去的五年中，这两种工具一直是化学和生命科学系的43个研究小组的研究人员以及工程与设计学院的关键工具，总计超过170位用户。其中一种或两种乐器的损失将对这项研究的交付以及NMR服务的整体能力产生破坏性的影响。我们打算通过替换控制台（通过为运行实验的电子设备添加了最新的nmr概率），刷新这些光谱仪（500 MHz）的最重要和最高规格（500 MHz），并将其添加到最新的exports and nmr Probere（添加到最新的nMR概率）（组成部分）（添加了新的概率）（成分）（组成部分）（该组成部分）（该组合）（组成部分）（ （在给定时间最多可以容纳60个样本）。我们将保留2010年购买的现有NMR磁铁，因为这可以预期至少15年的可行性，并与我们的环境可持续性目标保持一致。这种方法为货币升级提供了价值，可以维持BATH的最先进的NMR仪器，不仅可以满足我们的直接需求，而且还可以极大地提高样本敏感性和能力。我们希望仪器的灵敏度增加一倍，这本身将减少获取时间。我们还将能够实施新的实验策略，例如同时获得两个实验的数据。因此，新技术将显着增加样本周转和吞吐量，并允许在目前无法使用的样品上获得数据。