Description of the Research Infrastructure
Radboud University Nijmegen, is a broad, internationally oriented university that aspires to be one of the best in Europe, ranking #121 globally (THE). It has been awarded the best traditional university of the Netherlands for 6 consecutive years (Elsevier survey 2016 and previous). Radboud University offers 37 Bachelor's and 76 Master's degree programs and hosts about 20,000 students and 5,000 staff.
The Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) is an interdisciplinary research institute in chemistry and physics at Radboud University. Its mission is to perform fundamental research to understand, design and control the functioning of molecules and materials. The IMM research facilities fulfil a central role in the collaboration of international scientists. The High Field Magnet Laboratory combined with the precisely tuned lasers in the FELIX Laboratory, the scanning probe microscopes, NMR and Trace Gas Facilities are widely used in various research fields.
The Magnetic Resonance Research Center (4 faculty staff members, 3 technicians) has maintained a strong international status over the last decades. The unique aspect is that methods development is combined with realistic applications in materials science. It is one of few groups specializing in the development and application of NMR methodology and equipment necessary for materials science, and produced results on a variety of subjects relevant to the application (catalysis, Li-battery materials, hydrogen storage materials, solar cell materials, polymers etc.). The group is one of the driving forces behind the roadmap for future developments in NMR research in the Netherlands (uNMR-NL) which successfully applied for a facility that will host one of the first 1.2 GHz spectrometers worldwide. In this context the group hosts the solid-state NMR facility for advanced materials science.
Access to the Institute for Molecules and Materials website
Expertise
The mission of the research of the Nijmegen magnetic resonance research center is to develop new techniques to optimize sensitivity and information content of NMR spectra. Functional materials under investigation (by Kentgens and van Eck) are placed in a societally relevant context, i.e. for energy conversion and storage, efficient catalysis and biomass conversion, pharmaceuticals and drug-delivery systems and polymers ranging from engineering plastics to high performance polymers. Finally, theoretical support is provided by de Wijs who implemented the calculation of NMR parameters in the VASP DFT package, making it possible to establish structure function relationships in the above- mentioned material
Spectrometers open to access
600 MHz DNP & 850 MHz
Besides a number of broadband HXY MAS NMR probe heads (1.6mm, 3.2mm, 4mm, 6mm) for the 600 MHz spectrometer, there is a 4-channel HFXY probe for which allows the study of fluorinated compounds. The spectrometer is equipped with a gyrotron operating at 395 GHz (MW frequency) for high-field DNP enhanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy using a unique DNP-MAS probe (4 mm) which allows spinning at temperatures down to 20 K, which is not available for commercial setups. The probe technology will be further optimized toward lower temperatures and faster MAS during the course of this project.
The VNMRS 850 MHz widebore spectrometer is equipped with various probeheads including broadband triple-tuned (HXY) fast MAS probes (~45 kHz (1.6 mm), ~60 kHz (1.2mm) and the latest 110 kHz (0.7mm) systems). Besides the availability of commercial probes, the expert technical staff at Nijmegen developed unique probe technology not available elsewhere, notably a triple-tuned (HXY) micro-coil MAS probe allowing the analysis of mass-limited samples in the nanoliter regime with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution even at moderate spinning speeds, in combination with sensitive proton detection experiments this allows heteronuclear correlation experiments. Additionally, the very large RF-field strengths that can be generated by micro- and milli-coils are of interest for the excitation of enormous bandwidths, for example enabling the study of quadrupolar nuclei in very asymmetric environments. Finally, so-called stripline detectors were developed for NMR which are optimally adapted to flat geometries e.g. to study thin films. Probes to allow ‘operando’ characterization of functional materials are under development.
