Equipment: MRI: Acquisition of Helium Recovery Equipment: Helium recovery for magnetic resonance facilities at UC Santa Barbara

设备： MRI：采购氦回收设备：加州大学圣巴巴拉分校磁共振设施的氦回收

• 批准号: 2320301
• 负责人: Raphaele Clement
• 金额: $ 28.76万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320301&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Equipment; MRI; Acquisition; Helium; Recovery

This project offers a concerted plan to mitigate the potentially devastating impacts of the helium supply crisis on magnetic resonance research and instrumentation at UC Santa Barbara. The concerted effort brings together the NSF-supported Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) MRSEC Spectroscopy Facility and Terahertz Facility, that enable cutting-edge research in Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, and Biology and serve over 50 research groups and numerous industrial partners. The requested instrumentation is key to preventing catastrophic instrument failure and loss of resources. Further, by reducing the cost and contingencies associated with operating superconducting magnets through helium recycling, the requested instrumentation has a decisive impact on: 1) the ability of research groups to meet their research milestones and maintain funding, 2) the ability to retain faculty with expertise in magnetic resonance spectroscopy, recruit new faculty members in this area, and train the next generation of scientists. The requested instrumentation is also key to the development of a lab course offered in the context of the NSF-supported “NRT: Integrative Training In Quantum Assembly & Technology (INTRIQATE)” program, which aims to prepare graduate students for leadership in a diverse quantum workforce. The medium pressure helium (He) recovery system enables the magnetic resonance facilities of interest to operate near self-sufficiency, removing contingencies on external He supplies and preventing irreparable damage to eight superconducting magnets (which together are worth several million dollars). The recovery system includes a He liquefier, a compressor, a medium pressure recovery hub, a purification system, and a medium pressure storage tank. This system replaces the current Liquefier in the Spectroscopy Facility, resulting in a significant increase in He recovery from ~60% to ~90-95%. Importantly, by transferring the existing liquefier to the Terahertz Facility, this acquisition creates the unique opportunity of benefitting two major user Facilities. Among high impact research activities enabled by this instrumentation, we highlight five here: 1) NMR and EPR studies of ion and mixed conducting materials for electrochemical energy storage and water purification systems; 2) Ex situ and in situ NMR insights into heterogeneous catalysts; 3) Design of biomolecular MRI probes; 4) Filming proteins in action using Time-resolved Gadolinium-Gadolinium Electron paramagnetic Resonance (TIGGER) Spectroscopy; 5) Probing many body interactions in low dimension, patterned spin architectures.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.

该项目提供了一个协调一致的计划，以减轻氦供应危机对加州大学圣巴巴拉分校磁共振研究和仪器的潜在破坏性影响。共同努力汇集了nsf支持的材料研究实验室（MRL） MRSEC光谱设施和太赫兹设施，使化学，物理，材料科学，化学工程和生物学的前沿研究成为可能，并为50多个研究小组和众多工业合作伙伴提供服务。所要求的仪器是防止灾难性仪器故障和资源损失的关键。此外，通过氦气回收降低操作超导磁体的成本和突发事件，所要求的仪器对以下方面具有决定性影响：1)研究小组实现其研究里程碑和维持资金的能力；2)保留具有磁共振光谱专业知识的教师的能力，招募该领域的新教师，并培养下一代科学家。所要求的仪器也是在nsf支持的“NRT：量子组装技术综合培训（INTRIQATE）”项目背景下提供的实验课程开发的关键，该项目旨在为研究生在多样化的量子劳动力中担任领导角色做好准备。中压氦（He）回收系统使感兴趣的磁共振设施能够接近自给自足，消除外部氦供应的突发事件，并防止对八个超导磁体（总价值数百万美元）造成不可修复的损坏。回收系统包括He液化器、压缩机、中压回收枢纽、净化系统和中压储罐。该系统取代了目前光谱设备中的液化器，使He回收率从~60%显著提高到~90-95%。重要的是，通过将现有液化器转移到太赫兹设施，此次收购创造了使两个主要用户设施受益的独特机会。在该仪器支持的高影响力研究活动中，我们在此强调五个方面：1)用于电化学储能和水净化系统的离子和混合导电材料的核磁共振和EPR研究；2)非原位和原位核磁共振对多相催化剂的深入研究；3)生物分子MRI探针的设计；4)利用时间分辨钆-钆电子顺磁共振（TIGGER）光谱技术拍摄活动中的蛋白质；5)探索低维、图案自旋结构中的许多身体相互作用。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。