Acquisition of a Cryoprobe for a NMR Spectrometer

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Multiuser program (CRIF:MU), the Chemistry Department at Texas A&M University Main Campus will acquire a cryoprobe for a 500 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. The increased sensitivity provided by this acquisition will advance a variety of research projects, including: 1) Analysis of natural product molecules from aquatic organisms, obtained only in small amounts; 2) Investigations of reaction mechanisms by quantitative NMR spectroscopy, requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio even of dilute samples, to achieve the necessary precision; 3) Studies of small amounts of unstable organometallic compounds and catalytic transition states; and 4) Investigations of enzyme-bound intermediates and membrane transport experiments employing isotopically enriched protein samples. NMR spectroscopy is a very powerful analytical technique for the analysis of materials in chemistry, biochemistry and biology research. The spectra enable researchers to identify and characterize their substances including transient intermediates from reactions. They provide information on the arrangement and connectivity of atoms in molecules and materials, i.e., their structures by detecting transitions between energy levels arising from the nuclear spin properties of atoms. The cryoprobe will have a significant impact on education both intra- and extramurally. At Texas A&M, graduate and undergraduate research students will benefit from the ability to obtain data from state-of-the-art instrumentation. In addition, to enhance regional impact, the instrument will be cyber enabled. Off campus users will be able to send their samples, and will have the choice of having spectra obtained by staff, or of performing the experiments themselves by remote control of the spectrometer. Faculty at the University of Texas-Pan American, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University Kingsville, Tarleton State University, and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin will have access to the spectrometer. Many of these institutions have high Hispanic enrollments making this acquisition available to significant numbers of underrepresented students.