Brinkmann Research

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Hyperpolarization in Quantitative NMR and Quantum Information Processing.

Project Title: Parahydrogen-Induced Hyperpolarization: Applications to Quantitative NMR and Quantum Information Processing

The Role: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an indispensable tool in chemistry, biochemistry, medicine, pharmaceutical, food, polymer and material science. It enables identification, structure determination, the study of dynamics, and quantification of small- to macromolecules. However, NMR, especially of dilute analytes in complex mixtures, is hampered by low sensitivity due to the low nuclear polarization at thermal equilibrium. Parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) has grown into an attractive, relatively low-cost, and versatile technique to produce non-equilibrium nuclear polarization, or hyperpolarization, resulting in NMR signal enhancements of 2-3 order of magnitudes in specific substrate molecules, enabling detection at nanomolar concentrations. The goal of this PDF project is to setup and exploit PHIP to (i) push the sensitivity of quantitative NMR to unprecedented limits, enabling orders of magnitudes lower limits of detection and quantification, and (ii) enable the use of a larger number of nuclear spin qubits for the simulation of more complex quantum algorithms by offsetting the inherent polarization loss during computation.

Education: Ph.D. in chemistry, biochemistry, or closely related field.

Experience: Experience with developing and employing advanced NMR techniques, including pulse sequence development, multi-nuclear and multi-dimensional experiments is required; Prior experience in hyperpolarization techniques is highly desirable.

Language Requirements: English

Duration: 2 years

Location: Ottawa, Canada

Closing Date: 18 December 2024

Our paper entitled “Surface chemistry of metal oxide nanoparticles: NMR and TGA quantification” has been accepted for publication in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

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Our paper entitled “¹³C-Satellite Decoupling Strategies for Improving Accuracy in Quantitative NMR” has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry.

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Our paper entitled “Solid-state ¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁷O NMR characterization of the two uncommon polymorphs of curcumin” has been accepted for publication in Crystal Growth & Design.

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Our paper entitled “Scalable Gas-Phase Purification of Boron Nitride Nanotubes by Selective Chlorine Etching,” has been accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials.

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Our paper entitled “A Multi-Method Approach for Quantification of Surface Coatings on Commercial Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials” has been accepted for publication in Nanomaterials.

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Our paper entitled “Quantification of surface functional groups on silica nanoparticles: comparison of thermogravimetric analysis and quantitative NMR,” has been accepted for publication in the Analyst.

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Our paper entitled “Metrologically traceable quantification of trifluoroacetic acid content in peptide reference materials by ¹⁹F solid-state NMR” has been accepted for publication in the Metrologia special issue Focus on Advances in Metrology in Chemistry and Biology.

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Our paper entitled “Insight into the Chromophore of Rhodopsin and its Meta II Photointermediate by ¹⁹F Solid-State NMR and Chemical Shift Tensor Calculations” has been accepted for publication in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

¹⁹F solid-state NMR studies together with bond polarization theory chemical shift tensor calculations provide insight into the chromophore of rhodopsin and its active state Meta II.

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Our paper entitled “Quantification and stability of surface amine groups on silica nanoparticles using solution NMR” has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry.

We have developed an optimized protocol for dissolution of aminated silicas and determined functional group content by quantitative ¹H NMR (qNMR) of the released amines.

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Our paper entitled “Capturing Elusive Polymorphs of Curcumin: A Structural Characterization and Computational Study” has been published in Crystal Growth & Design.

Two polymorphs of curcumin (monoclinic and orthorhombic forms) were obtained and characterized. The crystal structure of the orthorhombic form was redetermined and ¹³C and ¹H solid-state NMR spectra assigned, based on the 2D ¹³C–¹H HETCOR nuclear magnetic resonance experiment and GIPAW density functional theory calculations. We demonstrate the importance of combined experimental and computational approach in the characterization of polymorphs in bulk samples.

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My paper entitled “Introduction to Average Hamiltonian Theory. I. Basics” has been published in the special issue of Concepts in Magnetic Resonance in honor of Alex Bain.

The goal of this paper is to introduce average Hamiltonian theory in a rigorous but educational manner. The application to two composite pulses in NMR spectroscopy is used to demonstrate important aspects of average Hamiltonian theory.

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