Equipment: MRI: Acquisition of Helium Recovery Equipment: Helium recovery for magnetic resonance facilities at UC Santa Barbara

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project offers a concerted plan to mitigate the potentially devastating impacts of the helium supply crisis on magnetic resonance research and instrumentation at UC Santa Barbara. The concerted effort brings together the NSF-supported Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) MRSEC Spectroscopy Facility and Terahertz Facility, that enable cutting-edge research in Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, and Biology and serve over 50 research groups and numerous industrial partners. The requested instrumentation is key to preventing catastrophic instrument failure and loss of resources. Further, by reducing the cost and contingencies associated with operating superconducting magnets through helium recycling, the requested instrumentation has a decisive impact on: 1) the ability of research groups to meet their research milestones and maintain funding, 2) the ability to retain faculty with expertise in magnetic resonance spectroscopy, recruit new faculty members in this area, and train the next generation of scientists. The requested instrumentation is also key to the development of a lab course offered in the context of the NSF-supported “NRT: Integrative Training In Quantum Assembly & Technology (INTRIQATE)” program, which aims to prepare graduate students for leadership in a diverse quantum workforce. The medium pressure helium (He) recovery system enables the magnetic resonance facilities of interest to operate near self-sufficiency, removing contingencies on external He supplies and preventing irreparable damage to eight superconducting magnets (which together are worth several million dollars). The recovery system includes a He liquefier, a compressor, a medium pressure recovery hub, a purification system, and a medium pressure storage tank. This system replaces the current Liquefier in the Spectroscopy Facility, resulting in a significant increase in He recovery from ~60% to ~90-95%. Importantly, by transferring the existing liquefier to the Terahertz Facility, this acquisition creates the unique opportunity of benefitting two major user Facilities. Among high impact research activities enabled by this instrumentation, we highlight five here: 1) NMR and EPR studies of ion and mixed conducting materials for electrochemical energy storage and water purification systems; 2) Ex situ and in situ NMR insights into heterogeneous catalysts; 3) Design of biomolecular MRI probes; 4) Filming proteins in action using Time-resolved Gadolinium-Gadolinium Electron paramagnetic Resonance (TIGGER) Spectroscopy; 5) Probing many body interactions in low dimension, patterned spin architectures. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.