Grant: Engage Grants Program

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool used by chemists, biochemists, biologistsand the pharmaceutical industry to establish chemical identity and structure. Despite its broad utility, NMRspectroscopy was the last analytical technology to miniaturize. Nanalysis Corp. is a small, Calgary-basedCanadian company that manufactures small ""bench-top"" NMR spectrometers. Although they have developedindustry leading technology, they have not yet created protocols for operating their instruments in the unusualenvironment of a glove box, a special tool employed by academic, industrial and pharmaceutical chemists whouse air-sensitive chemicals that must be stored under an inert atmosphere.The proposed project involves a collaboration between Nanalysis Corp. and Prof. Paul G. Hayes at theUniversity of Lethbridge. Hayes is an expert in air-sensitive chemistry and NMR spectroscopy and possessesresources necessary to provide operational testing of a bench-top NMR spectrometer inside a functioning glovebox. The information obtained throughout this project will allow Nanalysis to access a new market, therebygrowing their customer base, ultimately leading to job creation. It is important to recognize that manychemicals relevant to products used by many Canadians (e.g. metal catalysts that are used to makepharmaceuticals or polymerize alkenes to make plastics) react negatively with oxygen and moisture in the air.Thus, technological improvements that enable such work to be completed more quickly and efficiently willbenefit Canadians by lowering the cost of existing products and leading to more rapid development of newones.