Benchtop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Research Articles

Benchtop NMR for the monitoring of bioprocesses.

This mini-review highlights the potential of benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the monitoring of bioprocesses. It describes recent perspectives opened by the reduced size of devices in relaxometry, magnetic resonance imaging and NMR spectroscopy. In particular, the recent emergence of the benchtop NMR spectroscopy gives access to many applications thanks to the implementation of advanced experiments.

Practical application of 1 H benchtop NMR spectroscopy for the characterization of a nonaqueous phase liquid from a contaminated environment.

Nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) located at the surface of the water table and/or below the water table are often a significant source for groundwater contamination near current or former commercial/industrial facilities. Due to the complex and long history of many industrial sites, these NAPLs often contain a complex mixture of contaminants and as such can be difficult to fully characterize using conventional analytical methods. Remediation and risk assessment activities at sites containing NAPLs may, subsequently, be hindered as the contamination profile may not be fully understood. This paper demonstrates the application of bench-scale 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a practical tool to assist with the characterization of complex NAPLs. Here, a NAPL collected from a contaminated site situated near a former chemical manufacturing facility was analyzed using a combination of one-dimensional (1D) 1 H NMR spectroscopy and two-dimensional (2D) 1 H J-resolved spectroscopy (JRES). It is shown that 1D NMR experiments are useful in the rapid identification of the classes of compounds present, whereas 2D JRES NMR experiments are useful in identifying specific compounds. The use of benchtop NMR spectroscopy as a simple and cost effective tool to assist in the analysis of contaminated sites may help improve the practical characterization of many heavily contaminated sites and facilitate improved risk assessments and remedial strategies.

Low-Field, Benchtop NMR Spectroscopy as a Potential Tool for Point-of-Care Diagnostics of Metabolic Conditions: Validation, Protocols and Computational Models

Novel sensing technologies for liquid biopsies offer promising prospects for the early detection of metabolic conditions through omics techniques. Indeed, high-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facilities are routinely used for metabolomics investigations on a range of biofluids in order to rapidly recognise unusual metabolic patterns in patients suffering from a range of diseases. However, these techniques are restricted by the prohibitively large size and cost of such facilities, suggesting a possible role for smaller, low-field NMR instruments in biofluid analysis. Herein we describe selected biomolecule validation on a low-field benchtop NMR spectrometer (60 MHz), and present an associated protocol for the analysis of biofluids on compact NMR instruments. We successfully detect common markers of diabetic control at low-to-medium concentrations through optimised experiments, including α-glucose (≤2.8 mmol/L) and acetone (25 µmol/L), and additionally in readily accessible biofluids, particularly human urine. We present a combined protocol for the analysis of these biofluids with low-field NMR spectrometers for metabolomics applications, and offer a perspective on the future of this technique appealing to ‘point-of-care’ applications.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

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On-line monitoring of chemical reactions by using bench-top nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Real-time nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy measurements carried out with a bench-top system installed next to the reactor inside the fume hood of the chemistry laboratory are presented. To test the system for on-line monitoring, a transfer hydrogenation reaction was studied by continuously pumping the reaction mixture from the reactor to the magnet and back in a closed loop. In addition to improving the time resolution provided by standard sampling methods, the use of such a flow setup eliminates the need for sample preparation. Owing to the progress in terms of field homogeneity and sensitivity now available with compact NMR spectrometers, small molecules dissolved at concentrations on the order of 1 mmol L(-1) can be characterized in single-scan measurements with 1 Hz resolution. Owing to the reduced field strength of compact low-field systems compared to that of conventional high-field magnets, the overlap in the spectrum of different NMR signals is a typical situation. The data processing required to obtain concentrations in the presence of signal overlap are discussed in detail, methods such as plain integration and line-fitting approaches are compared, and the accuracy of each method is determined. The kinetic rates measured for different catalytic concentrations show good agreement with those obtained with gas chromatography as a reference analytical method. Finally, as the measurements are performed under continuous flow conditions, the experimental setup and the flow parameters are optimized to maximize time resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.