NMR Facility Policies

Access to the Facility and its Services

Use of Southern Illinois University's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility is limited to SIU faculty, staff, and students in addition to billable private-sector customers in accordance with the following guidelines:

• Faculty, staff, and students who have undergone user training and/or certification may operate the instruments without direct supervision, provided
  • Financial responsibility (vide infra) is implicitly agreed to as a result of this use.
  • Such use of the Facility falls within the guidelines for sponsored research at the in-house rates for SIU research. The associated charges must be charged to a valid SIU account.
  • The only instrumental techniques attempted are routine ones or are those for which the user has received special instruction and permission.

  Only those who have been issued a password and told by the NMR Facility Director that they may operate the instruments unsupervised may do so.

  Authorized users should not admit anyone to the NMR laboratory unless those persons are under the direct supervision of the user or facility personnel. University staff occasionally try to enter to perform tasks, but they may be unaware of the dangers posed by the superconductive magnets.

• Faculty, staff, and students who have not undergone training and checkout may submit SIU samples to be run by Facility personnel at the in-house rates plus an additional $20/hr that applies only to the time the personnel are setting up the data acquisition or working up the data (minimum 1 hr charge). This option is recommended for (and may be imposed upon) users who have infrequent need for NMR data, whose instrument-competence is questionable, or for those who have temporary need of advanced techniques.
• Private sector clients must have their samples run at the appropriate rates by Facility personnel, even if they have arrangements with SIU personnel for the performance of non-SIU research. Although some arrangements with the private sector fall under the guidelines for "sponsored SIU research," more often they do not. Check with the appropriate ORDA Research Project Specialist if in doubt.

Financial Responsibility for Charges and Damages

All NMR Facility Users are responsible for applicable charges and for damage that results from samples that are explosive, pressurized, chemically corrosive, radioactive, biologically dangerous, or that otherwise pose unusual hazards to instrumentation or personnel. In all such cases, prior permission and advice should be sought with regard to these special samples, but permission does not absolve any user from responsibility for whatever harm their samples may cause the Facility.

SIU researchers use the Facility with the understanding that the account used may be charged up to $5000 for damages incurred as a result of careless or negligent use of the instrumentation. This obligation does not extend to responsibility for damage that occurs accidentally and unavoidably during normal use.

Reserving Instrument Time

We have found that the best system for SIU is to have the instruments available primarily on a first-come first-served basis. Users have a tendency to cooperate with one another and sign-up sheets interfered with smooth operation. However, sometimes it is necessary to reserve time: perhaps for non-routine nuclei, special experiments, or unstable samples. When this is needed a scheduling sheet (or just a note) can be posted on an instrument. Time reserved, but not used, will be charged at the normal rates unless other users used the instrument time.

Sample Tubes and Deuterated Solvents

NMR tubes come with various claims concerning specifications, but our experience is that some manufacturers rarely meet these specs. We have confidence only in tubes from the Wilmad Glass Company, While the economical 507-PP tube is a satisfactory 5 mm tube, users will probably want to use 528-PP tubes for the Inova 300 and 535-PP tubes for best results on the Inova 500. Non-concentric tubes cause wear of the probe insert, so users are cautioned to inspect tubes before use and to avoid prolonged storage of tubes in drying ovens.

Deuterated solvents also come in a wide range of qualities, but this issue does not bear on the instruments' well-being, so we only recommend. Do not buy solvents with 1% TMS if you must have the reference included, but rather 0.1% or 0.01% TMS. "Standard grade" NMR solvents are >99.5 atom-% D, with "high grade" being >99.95% and "highest grade" being >99.995%.

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