The UK Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation Magic Angle Spinning NMR Facility

固体核磁共振（NMR）波谱是理解生物、化学、物理和材料科学中原子级结构和动力学的关键技术。然而，尽管核磁共振具有独特的通用性和高化学环境信息含量，但由于核极化弱，其灵敏度较低，并且需要较长的实验时间，特别是对于低浓度或具有小磁矩的本质不敏感的稀物质。动态核极化（DNP）是一项新兴技术，它可以将核磁共振信号强度提高三个数量级，并涉及从自由基或金属离子（植入或固有存在于样品中）中未配对电子的更大极化转移到附近的核磁共振检测。自2008年以来，用于DNP魔角旋转（MAS）核磁共振的商用光谱仪的出现，使研究工作从最初的仪器开发转向了更多应用驱动的研究。成功的途径在很大程度上依赖于通过实现最佳样品配方来获得高信号增强，其中包括适当选择未配对电子和合适的矩阵以将其嵌入感兴趣的样品中。此后出现了许多开创性的应用，证明了这种新型光谱方法的独特潜力，可以解决各种不同的研究挑战，从储能材料，催化，药物输送到生物分子，具有巨大的潜力，在未来有更广泛的应用。EPSRC委托并于2013年发布了一份英国核磁共振路线图（并于2017年更新），该路线图强调了对该技术进行大量资本投资的迫切需要，DNP MAS NMR的重要性已经得到了认可。主要建议是直接提供第一个商业DNP MAS NMR系统在英国,导致资金的诺丁汉DNP MAS NMR设施操作14.1 T仪器(EP / L0222524/1) 2015年,在英国和至少两个额外的系统在中期内,这引发了提交的业务案例EPSRC战略设备过程由曼彻斯特大学的9.4 T系统于2020年在利物浦大学的伙伴关系。NMR路线图的建议最近得到了剑桥大学2019年提交的一份社区需求声明的证实，该声明代表了诺丁汉设施的外部用户组，由EPSRC国家研究设施小组优先考虑。为了响应这些长达十年的活动，EPSRC邀请社区向战略设备流程提交一份完整的提案，以提供DNP MAS NMR光谱，以服务于英国科学界。在这里，我们建议通过将14.1 T诺丁汉DNP MAS核磁共振设施的全面运行与剑桥大学9.4 T系统的一小部分实验时间和曼彻斯特大学的新9.4 T仪器相结合，并辅以快速MAS的额外功能，在三个主机机构上建立一个分布式DNP MAS核磁共振设施。将为英国社会提供定期访问仪器和世界一流的专业知识。我们将通过使EPSRC繁荣成果、影响研究主题和涵盖许多研究领域，实现DNP MAS NMR的重大变革性投资。这个分布式设施的成功和可持续发展的关键是两个设施经理的支持，他们为运营成本提供资金，再加上一个管理结构，单入口点申请程序，强大的社区支持和广泛的传播和推广策略，使（DNP） NMR专家与更广泛的英国研究社区合作。

Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a key technique for understanding atomic-scale level structures and dynamics in the biological, chemical, physical and material sciences. However, despite its unique versatility and high chemical environments information content, NMR suffers from low sensitivity, due to the weak nuclear polarisation, and requires long experiment times, especially for dilute species such as those in low concentrations or intrinsically insensitive with small magnetic moments. Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP) is an emerging technology that can enhance the NMR signal intensities by up to three orders of magnitude and involves polarisation transfer from the much larger polarisation of unpaired electrons in radicals or metal ions, either implanted or inherently present in the samples, to the nearby nuclei followed by NMR detection. The advent of commercial spectrometers for DNP Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR since 2008 has redirected research efforts away from the initial instrumentation development to more application-driven research. The pathway to success relies heavily on obtaining high signal enhancements by achieving optimal sample formulation which involves an appropriate choice of the unpaired electrons and of a suitable matrix to embed them in the sample of interest. Many pioneering applications have since emerged, demonstrating the unique potential of this novel spectroscopy method for addressing a wide variety of different research challenges ranging from energy storage materials, catalysis, drug delivery to biological molecules with tremendous potential for wider utilisation in the future. The importance of DNP MAS NMR has been recognised in a review of the UK NMR landscape commissioned and published by the EPSRC as an NMR roadmap in 2013 (and updated in 2017) that stressed the urgent need for significant capital investment in this technology. Key recommendations were the immediate provision of the first commercial DNP MAS NMR system in the UK, that led to the funding of the Nottingham DNP MAS NMR Facility operating a 14.1 T instrument (EP/L0222524/1) in 2015, and at least two additional systems across the UK in the medium term, that triggered the submission of a business case to the EPSRC Strategic Equipment Process for a 9.4 T system by the University of Manchester in partnership with the University of Liverpool in 2020. The recommendations of the NMR roadmap were recently corroborated by a Statement of Community Need submitted in 2019 by the University of Cambridge, representing the external user group of the Nottingham Facility, which was prioritised by the EPSRC National Research Facility panel. In response to these decade-long activities, EPSRC invited the community to submit a full proposal to the Strategic Equipment Process for the provision of DNP MAS NMR spectroscopy to serve the UK science community. Here, we propose to establish a distributed DNP MAS NMR Facility located over the three host institutions by combining the full operation of the 14.1 T Nottingham DNP MAS NMR Facility with a fraction of experimental time of the 9.4 T system at the University of Cambridge and a new 9.4 T instrument at the University of Manchester, augmented by additional capabilities for fast MAS, that, taken together, will provide the UK community with both regular access to instrumentation and world-class expertise. We will deliver on this major transformative investment in DNP MAS NMR by being able to benefit EPSRC Prosperity Outcomes, impact Research Themes and cover many Research Areas. Critical to the success and sustainability of this distributed Facility is the support of two Facility Managers with funding for operating costs coupled to one management structure with a single-entry point application procedure, strong community support and wide dissemination and outreach strategies engaging (DNP) NMR experts with the broader UK research communities.