The University of Virginia Chemistry Department has learned it will be awarded a Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation for a new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer. Chemistry department chair Jill Venton says, “Prof. Harman, Prof. Gunnoe, Prof. Gilliard and Dr. Ellena are commended for this successful instrumentation proposal which will modernize our NMR facility and speed up research for our synthetic chemists.”

With the grant, the department is planning on purchasing a Bruker AVANCE NEO 400 MHz Nanobay NMR spectrometer with 2 RF transceivers, SampleCase 60 position automatic sample changer, 5 mm SmartProbe iProbe with channels for 1H, 19F, and 31P - 109Ag (tunable), low 11B background, automatic tune and match, and sample temperature range of -150 °C to 150 °C. For scientists and engineers that study molecules, NMR has become a gold standard for the rapid identification of chemical structures and mixtures.

W. Dean Harman is the lead-PI on the grant and comments, “this instrument will have a dramatic impact on the ability of our research teams to acquire high quality NMR data with a rapid turn-around time." Research groups from across the University, which include Chemical Engineering, Radiology, Pharmacology and Physiology, will gather data in real time which allows the chemical reactions to be optimized through this quick NMR evaluation.