UofL Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers

Overview

The Chemistry Department houses 3 state of the art solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers under the authority of the ULNMR Service Center and the direction of Dr. Neal Stolowich. The Center’s NMRs are critical to many research projects on campus and local industry, as well as offering important exposure to the undergraduate teaching labs. The key capabilities of each system are summarized below. For a more complete list of specifications, see Instrumentation.

400 MHz NMR Spectrometer

The Agilent 400MR was installed in 2010 and operates in a fully automated 24/7 walkup environment. It is equipped with a 1H/19F/X 5mm z-axis PFG ATB (auto tunable broadband) probe available for 1H, 19F, 11B, 13C, and 31P routine 1D studies as well as 1H/1H and 1H/13C common 2D pulse sequences such as COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC and HMBC.  The 400MR is routinely available for use in the undergraduate organic labs. A 96 place robotic sample changer and Protune accessory round out the automation hardware.

500 MHz NMR Spectrometer 

The Varian INOVA 500 is a 3-channel system available for routine 1D and 2D NMR studies as above, but also longer duration studies, kinetic and variable temperature studies. Either the 5mm 1H/13C/15N (HCN) z-axis PFG or BBH 5 mm probes are available upon request. Installed in 2000, a proposal is currently pending to upgrade the console and add a cold probe.

700 MHz NMR Spectrometer

The Agilent VNMRS 700 is ULNMR’s center piece – it is a 4 channel system operating at a field of 16.4 Telsa and is equipped with a 1H and 13C sensitivity enhanced 5mm HCN cold probe. Primarily used for protein and macromolecular studies, it is capable of all modern nD pulse sequences. The enhanced sensitivity on both proton and carbon-13  also make it particularly useful in analyzing sub-milligram quantities of natural products. Room temperature 5 mm HCP and 10 mm broadband probes are also available.