Director: Matthew Devany, PhD
The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility was established in 1983 and has recently undergone major renovations. At present, the facility consists of four Nuclear Magnetic Resonance instruments: a JEOL GX-400, a Varian Inova 500, a Bruker Avance 500 equipped with a 13C-1H cryoprobe and a Bruker Avance III 600 MHz spectrometer equipped with a cryoprobe.
These spectrometers are used by scientists from Hunter College and the rest of the CUNY community.
The large variety of available probes allows detection of virtually any MR-active nuclide. Data analysis is performed either at the spectrometer workstation with vendor software or off-line with third-party software packages. The facility is frequently used by researchers for the analysis of organic and inorganic compounds, for the identification of natural products and for the determination of three-dimensional structures of macromolecules.
Philosophy
Rather than acting as a service facility, to which researchers submit samples or make requests, the NMR facility is an integral part of the research experience at Hunter. Almost all experiments are performed by undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. Researchers employ the spectrometers to perform a wide range of experiments, from simple proton and carbon spectra, to basic two-dimensional experiments, such as COSY and NOESY, to the latest higher- dimensional sequences used in structural biology.
Instrumentation
| 600 MHz Bruker Avance III | The 600 MHz Bruker Avance III instrument is the newest addition to our NMR facility. This 1H cryoprobe-equipped four-channel spectrometer is a state-of-the-art ultra-shielded magnet with an impressively small stray field, yielding increased lab safety and field homogeneity. The 1H signal-to-noise specification is ~5000:1 for this instrument. Currently, this instrument is reserved almost exclusively for the laboratory of Dr. Nancy Greenbaum for structural biology studies of macromolecules. |
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| 500 MHz Bruker Avance DRX | This is our workhorse instrument, used by numerous researchers every day. Unique among our instruments is the carbon-proton cryoprobe of this spectrometer. This probe gives a sensitivity enhancement of a factor of up to 10 over conventional probes, for both carbon and proton observe experiments. The instrument boasts signal-to-noise ratios of ~2300:1 for proton and 1500:1 for 13C. Researchers benefit from the probe’s ultra-high sensitivity. The probe makes possible the performance of 13C experiments in a short time frame, as well as 2D experiments on sample quantities that are too small to analyze on conventional probes. This instrument has moved into automated data collection with the addition of a sample changer. |
| 400 MHz Bruker Avance III | The Bruker 400 is another new addition. It provides probes and accessories for investigating the full range of NMR active nuclides, variable temperature from -150 to 150C and solids as well as liquids in full automation. It is equipped with a 4mm MAS solids probe, a workhorse broadband probe tunable from ~16MHz to 400MHz with 19F detection on the broadband coil allowing 1H decoupling, a 10mm broadband probe tunable from 119Sn to 103Rh (149 to 12.6MHz) and a special HPX probe for triple resonance experiments on phosphorus compounds. |
| 500 MHz Varian Inova | The Inova is our most versatile instrument, capable of NMR on both liquids and solids. It is equipped with Z-axis pulsed field gradients, a variety of probes and high power amplifiers. It has been used for the characterization of solids, variable temperature experiments on a variety of nuclides such as 1H, 13C, 19F, and 99Tc, and the structure determination of peptides and proteins, making use of 1D, 2D and 3D experiments. For comparison with our cryoprobe-equipped instruments, typical probes on this instrument achieve signal-to-noise ratios from 100:1 to 300:1, depending on the nucleus of interest. |
Charges
For researches from any CUNY school, including Hunter, the cost for use of the facility is $6/hour. If time is available, researchers from other universities may use the facility for the same price. The charge for industrial use is $100/hour and is allowable if this usage does not conflict with federal regulations concerning use of equipment purchased with federal funds. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the facility Director for questions, training or scheduling.