Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

The chemical manufacturing industry in Ontario leads in the area of chemicals production in Canada and includes subsectors such as biomedical, pharmaceutical, polymer and adhesives, and formulations chemistry. This infrastructure will be primarily focused in the Greater Toronto Area, supporting companies in Ontario. Support for research from post-secondary institutions in the region, including Seneca, will help the sector stay a world-leader in innovation and product offerings. Seneca Polytechnic is requesting a low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer from the ARTI program to expand our ability to support research in this important industry sector. NMR spectroscopy is a non-invasive molecular analysis technique that uses strong magnets to probe the identity and types of molecular bonds of atoms in a sample. It is one of the standard techniques used in compound identification across nearly every field of chemistry and a key component supporting innovate compound creation and quantification. Low-field NMR, which uses a solid-state magnet instead of a helium-cooled superconductor has opened NMR to a wide range of commercial uses beyond chemical identification, including oil and gas, medical, and agriculture applications. Despite this, there are few low-field spectrometers available for industry use. The applied research that we perform at Seneca currently is lacking the data collected by NMR to provide absolute structure determination of new or unknown compounds. While we can currently provide relative determination of compounds (compared to another sample or reference), in the cases where absolute determination is needed, we turn to other institutions, slowing our research down and creating additional research expense for our partners. In addition, this low-field NMR instrument also expands the type of research that we can offer to our partners, including application specific NMR method development. This instrument will support research for new and existing partners across multiple research centres at Seneca, including the Seneca Centre for Innovation in Life Sciences (SCILS) and the Seneca Centre for Innovation in Microfarming (SCIM). Overall, this instrument will boost our ability to address existing and emerging industry demand, expand our base of applied research partners, and offer new, innovative research opportunities to an expanding, important economic market in Ontario.