PhD student. Project: Application of fast Laplace NMR methods for reaction monitoring

Laplace NMR methods have been widely used for many years in industry

as well as in scientific research. This technology is based on the use

of phenomena of longitudinal and transverse relaxation of atomic nuclei

and diffusion to study processes in both homo and heterogeneous

materials. Thanks to its independence from chemical shift (in contrast

to classical NMR), it allows not only to study materials with very

different structures (e.g., concrete, rocks, polymers, food, tissues)

but also enables the use of simple NMR analyzers, which do not have a

homogeneous magnetic field. This makes it possible to significantly

reduce the cost of measurement as well as the mobility of such devices

(e.g., in the petrochemical industry, such devices are used in well

logging). Until now, the main limitation for these methods has been the

measurement time for multidimensional techniques, which has

significantly limited the application of Laplace NMR in the study of

time-dependent processes. However, two fast methods based on this

technique have recently been developed:

1. Ultra-Fast Laplace NMR

2. Time-resolved Laplace NMR

These techniques made it possible for the first time to study fast

processes using multidimensional Laplace NMR with time resolution

measured in seconds rather than tens of minutes, or even hours. As these

techniques are relatively new they have so far mainly been used in

simple demonstration systems rather than for studying reactions.

In the project, we will use fast Laplace NMR techniques to study

important time-dependent processes. The research will focus on 3 topics:

1. hydrogenation reactions using para-hydrogen (hyperpolarization by PHiP and SABRE)

2. photopolymerization

3. production of dairy products.

These phenomena will be studied on both high and low field NMR

spectrometers. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the

University of Oulu (Finland) as well as the Institute of Innovation of

the Dairy Industry.