Solid State NMR Service Lab

The KU Solid State NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) facility specializes in the analysis of solid materials. Projects come from a wide variety of fields including soils, pharmaceutics, biomass, catalysts, biological materials, organometallics, and inorganics. Using ssNMR you can learn about chemical shifts in functional groups and fingerprint sample components. The output will show a peak analysis of components present and provide data to evaluate variations between sample lots that have had different exposures.

Advantages of Solid State NMR

Non-Destructive - Samples can be returned

Non-Invasive - Samples can be studied without being perturbed

Selective - Nucleus specific (13C, 15N, 31P, 1H, 19F). Sample content and mixture components

Quantitative - Can measure relative concentration of physical forms without calibration curves

Solid State NMR Lab

Solid State NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) is an effective technique capable of looking at a variety of materials.  The solid state NMR facility utilizes state of the art technology to enable researchers to better understand the molecular structure and composition of solid samples.  In addition, our lab provides expertise in interpreting solid state NMR spectra.  Fields studied are diverse and include:

  • Organics (Fine Chemicals, Pharmaceutics)
  • Organometallics
  • Catalysts, Reactive Intermediates
  • MIxtures (e.g. Pharmaceutical Formulations)
  • Biomass, Plant Materials (Plant Stalk, Leaves)
  • Soils, Sediments
  • Energy Materials (Coal, Shale, Battery Materials)
  • Polymers, Proteins
  • Membranes, Tissue, Gels

Research Contributions

Mixtures of molecular species can be analyzed in order to identify what species are present and how much of it.  Also possible, is the determination of the degree of cross linking in polymers, the degree of incorporation of metals into catalysts and the change in composition of plant materials from different treatments.

Characterization of Materials in Solid State

  • Crystalline polymorphs
  • Crystal vs. amorphous
  • Influence of particle size, crystal quality, bulk environment
  • Lot-to-lot variation
  • Can isolate components of mixtures (e.g. drug and excipient)
  • Conformation, arrangement, degree of disorder
  • Dynamics - lattice mobility, glass transition (Tg)

More Information Available From Solids

  • Orientation-dependent interactions
  • Dipolar couplings
  • Chemical shift anisotropy (fingerprint)
  • Complicated spectra
  • Line broadening from multiple phenomena