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

该提案将资助巴斯材料和化学表征（MC2）核心研究设施内的一个核磁共振（NMR）光谱仪的更新和增强。核磁共振是表征各种样品的关键分析工具，包括聚合物、新型候选药物、新型催化剂和各种生物材料。巴斯目前有7台核磁共振光谱仪支持研究。其中一个是2017年投入使用的动态反应监测（DReaM）套件的焦点。其中两种是高级仪器，由经验丰富的用户以“动手”的方式使用，用于调查复杂的研究问题，这些仪器得益于过去三年的重大更新计划。最后，但至关重要的是，有四个开放获取的主力仪器，占我们总NMR使用量的63%。这些仪器是大多数研究人员的第一站，用于全天候分析数千个样本，提供快速、高质量的数据。这种核磁共振光谱仪的组合对于实现MC2内不同用户群所需的广泛实验和技术至关重要，并支持科学学院和工程与设计学院内部和之间的许多跨学科合作项目。该提案的重点是更新这两个最古老的核心基础开放获取工具之一；这两座核电站都是在2010年安装的，目前正迅速接近寿命终结。这两种仪器不再提供尖端或高效的核磁共振实验，其灵敏度仅为现代同类仪器的一半。自2021年8月以来，这两种老化仪器都出现了重大问题，导致数据采集严重（通常每天）延迟，并且需要MC2人员反复干预以恢复功能。仪器专家的时间目前集中在保持仪器的可用性上，这些时间可以更好地用于开发方法、与新用户接触和加速研究。使这一要求变得越来越紧迫的是，制造商的支持和相关备件的供应在2024年之后得不到保证。尽管这两种仪器变得越来越不可靠，但它们对我们的用户群来说仍然是必不可少的——仅在去年，它们就被用于从15,000多个实验中获取数据。在过去的五年中，这两种仪器一直是来自化学和生命科学系以及工程与设计学院43个研究小组的研究人员的重要工具，总计超过170个用户。这些仪器中的一种或两种仪器的损失将对这项研究的交付和整个核磁共振服务的能力产生毁灭性的影响。我们打算通过更换控制台（提供运行实验的电子设备），添加最新一代NMR探针（获取实验数据的组件）和安装新的样品转换器（在给定时间内最多可容纳60个样品）来刷新这些光谱仪中最重要和最高规格（500 MHz）。我们将保留2010年购买的现有核磁共振磁体，因为它预计至少可以再使用15年，并符合我们的环境可持续性目标。这种方法提供了物有所值的升级，以保持巴斯最先进的核心核磁共振仪器，不仅满足我们的直接要求，而且大大提高了样品的灵敏度和能力。我们希望将仪器的灵敏度提高一倍，这本身就会减少采集时间。我们还将能够实施新的实验策略，例如同时获取两个实验的数据。因此，新技术将显著增加样品周转和吞吐量，并允许在目前不可能获得的样品上获得数据。

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.