STTR Phase I: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at Low Magnetic Fields

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）一期项目将开发一种利用核磁共振（NMR）光谱在中低磁场强度下进行化学分析的新方法。核磁共振波谱的主要成本和物理限制是通常需要高场磁体。尽管高场仪器面临着来自小型台式仪器的竞争，但这些中等场设备性能较低，成本高，缺乏便携性。目前，小型台式仪器在12.5亿美元的核磁共振市场中占有1.2亿美元的份额。这个项目将通过探索一种新的方法来解决这些挑战，这种方法可以在由廉价、轻便、便携的磁铁产生的更弱、不同的磁场中工作。这将降低成本，扩大核磁共振市场在石油勘探、炼油和化工制造等领域的更广泛应用；还有可能是更小的教育机构，比如高中。这个项目的智力价值在于发展了一种新形式的核磁共振光谱学及其在中场台式光谱仪上的测试的物理理论，以及在目前不可能获得光谱信息的低场制度下的测试。这是由最近发现的一种叫做“自旋锁诱导交叉”（SLIC）的现象实现的，这种现象测量的是系统对一个小的旋转磁场而不是一个强的静态磁场的反应。一个目标将是扩大对SLIC的理论认识，以便预测和分析它产生的非常规光谱。其他实验任务将包括探索使用该技术所需的光谱仪的物理规格，评估该方法与传统核磁共振光谱学的性能，为常见化学品创建低场光谱字典，以及开发自动分析和解释光谱的方法。研究结果将用于开发在现有台式仪器上实施该方法的软件，并将为仅基于这些方法的低场光谱仪的设计和转换提供基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will develop a novel method for chemical analysis using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy at moderate and low magnetic field strengths. A major cost and physical limitation of NMR spectroscopy is the high-field magnet typically required. Although high-field instruments face competition from smaller benchtop-sized instruments, now a $120 million segment of the $1.25 billion NMR market, these moderate-field devices have lower performance, high cost, and lack portability. This project will address these challenges by exploring a new method designed to work in weaker, different magnetic fields produced with cheap, light, portable magnets. This will bring down the cost and expand the NMR market in a broader range of applications in petroleum exploration, refining, and chemical manufacturing; and potentially smaller educational institutions such as high schools. The intellectual merit of this project is the development of the physical theory behind a new form of NMR spectroscopy and its testing in moderate-field benchtop spectrometers, as well as in low-field regimes where spectroscopic information is currently impossible to acquire. This is made possible by a recently discovered phenomenon called "spin-lock induced crossing" (SLIC), which measures how the system responds to a small rotating magnetic field rather than a strong static field. One goal will be to expand the theoretical understanding of SLIC in order to predict and analyze the unconventional spectra it produces. Other experimental tasks will include exploring the physical specifications necessary for spectrometers to use the technique, evaluating the method's performance compared to conventional NMR spectroscopy, creating a dictionary of low-field spectra for common chemicals, and developing methods for automatic analysis and interpretation of the spectra. The results will be used to develop software for implementing the method on current benchtop instruments and will also provide a basis for the design and translation of low-field spectrometers based solely on these methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.