Solution-Phase Biomolecular NMR at 24 T Fields Using New High Temperature Superco

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): NMR is central to both the academic and industrial biomedical communities. Further progress in NMR is challenged by ultimate limitations in the low-temperature superconductor (LTS) wires used in NMR/MRI magnets since the 1970s, that prevent them from operating beyond 24T in a persistent, non-driven mode. This proposal builds on a recent NHMFL-based development that has delivered the first coil operating in a stable superconducting state at fields e34 T, and proposes to use this breakthrough for building a fully- superconducting solution NMR system operating above 1 GHz. To achieve this, and to demonstrate the feasibility of exploiting these ideas to carry biomolecular solution-state NMR to this and at higher (H30T) magnetic fields, we aim to: (i) develop a high homogeneity coil of round multifilamentary Bi-2212 wire, a new kind of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) developed by Larbalestier et al in 2012 and that unlike previously proposed HTSs can carry a high current density beyond 30 T; (ii) operate this coil within an existing Oxford Instrument LTS outsert magnet running in persistent mode, to deliver a room-temperature magnetic field sweet spot in excess of 23.5 T over a 10 mm DSV with homogeneities and relevant field instabilities of H1- 2 ppm; (iii) exploit the expertise that over the last decade NHMFL has amassed in field stabilization and probe construction, to demonstrate the feasibility of using such a setup at room temperature with H30 ppb stabilities and homogeneities over 150 ?L samples; (iv) place this system to the disposition of the NMR community at large as part of NHMFL's facility role, in order to exploit it for paramagnetic, membrane-protein, in cell and protein bioNMR research, as well as to get critical feedback on ways to further pursue this breakthrough.