University of Edinburgh

The NMR facility at the School of Chemistry of the University of Edinburgh is one of the leading facilities in the UK specialising in the structure determination and identification of typically organic materials. The NMR facility houses range of spectrometers from 300 to 800 MHz and its researchers are part of the Scottish NMR Users Group (SNUG). The 800 MHz spectrometer is a core instrument of the Scottish High Field NMR Centre (SHF-NMR) with 50% of spectrometer time shared among SNUG participating Scottish Universities and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research. The spectrometer operates in a dual liquid-solid configuration with 20% of spectrometer time devoted to solids used by the St Andrews NMR group. It is mainly used for complex mixture analysis and structural biology in the liquid state, and inorganic materials chemistry in the solid state. The 600 MHz spectrometer is dedicated to studies of small and large organic molecules and complex mixtures.

Contacts:
Juraj Bella for solution state NMR

Dr. Daniel Dawson (St Andrews) for solid state NMR

NMR Equipment

Very-High Field (700-800 MHz)

Bruker Avance NEO 800 MHz standard bore NMR 4-channel spectrometer equipped with SampleCase, automatic sample changer (24 position) and BCU II cooling unit for VT control down to -40 °C.

Solution state probes:

  • 5 mm 13C-optimised triple resonance (1H, 13C/15N, 2H TXO) He-cooled cryoprobe, z-gradient, T: -40°C to +80°C, automated tuning and matching
  • 5 mm 1H-optimised triple resonance (1H, 13C/15N, 2H TCI) He-cooled cryoprobe, z-gradient, T: -40°C to +80°C, automated tuning and matching
  • Range of old 5 mm room temperature probes: X-optimised double resonance probe (BBO), Triple Resonance Broad Band Probe (TBI) z-gradient and 1H-optimised triple resonance (TXI) xyz-gradients, T: -150°C to +150°C

Solid state probes:

  • 1.3 mm HX (31P-15N) double resonance DVT high speed double resonance  MAS probe, maximum MAS frequency 67 kHz, T: -30°C to +70°C
  • 2.5 mm HXY DVT TriGamma triple resonance MAS probe for predefined nuclei in range of X channel (31P-13C) and Y channel (23Na-15N), maximum MAS frequency 35 kHz, T: -50°C to +80°C.
  • 3.2 mm HX (15N-109Ag) double resonance DVT top-loading MAS probe, maximum MAS frequency 24 kHz, T: -30°C to +70°C

Additional capabilities

Bruker Avance III HD 400 MHz standard bore NMR 2.5 channel spectrometer equipped with a custom-built stop flow module that produces homogeneous solutions in precise thermostated volumes in under 150 msec. This allows the monitoring and recording of reactions under NMR analysis significantly faster than standard reaction monitoring by NMR. The system is provided with a 5 mm broadband triple resonance (1H, 15N-31P, 2H BBO) N2-cooled Prodigy cryoprobe, z-gradient, T: 0°C to +80°C