Microfluidic diamond NMR sensor

Project SummaryNuclear magnetic resonanceNMRis amongst the most powerful analytical techniques ever inventedas recognized byNobel Prizes for methods development aloneNonethelessNMR is notoriously plagued by poor sensitivity and spatial resolutionState of the art NMR spectrometers typically feature detection thresholds ofnanograms forL sample volumesThis places NMR sensitivity many orders of magnitude behind other analytical chemistry techniques such as mass spectrometryRaman spectroscopyand fluorescence labelingImprovements in NMR often focus on using larger magnetsbut progress has largely plateauedover the lastyearsthe fundamental signal strength has only increased by a factor ofWe seek to fundamentally change the NMR hardware by using diamond films doped with Nitrogen VacancyNVcenters to detect nuclear magnetizationnon inductivelyvia pulsed optically detected magnetic resonance methodsRecentlywe performed diamond NMR spectroscopy ofpL volume solutions and demonstratedx improvement in concentration sensitivity over previous NV and picoliter NMR studiesHere we propose to improve the sensitivityto andltpgand spectral resolutionto andltppmto realize an NMR spectrometer capable of quantitatively differentiating metabolites in sub nL mixtures at physiologically relevant concentrationsSuch a prototype could have a profound impact on metabolomics and pharmacodynamics researchcombining mass spectrometry level sensitivity with NMR level accuracy in unrefined samples containing numerous metabolites at sub mM concentrationsSpecificallywe improve upon existing analytical methods by offeringGreater performanceOur diamond NMR spectrometer will feature several orders of magnitude greater mass sensitivitypicograms instead of nanogramscompared to current NMR spectrometersThe mass sensitivity approaches that of mass spectrometry but retains benefits of NMR such as non destructiveabsolute quantitation and structural identificationCompatibility with hyphenated separation assaysOur spectrometer is compact and easily integrated into microfluidic chips for online chromatography based assaysHPLCfor sample limited analysesmetabolomicspharmacodynamicsnatural productsLower costOur spectrometer s sub nL detection volume leads to reduced engineering costsfore gmagnet stabilityproviding greater affordability than current NMR spectrometers ODMR Technologiesin collaboration with UNMseeks to fundamentally change the hardware used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy by using laser interrogation of magneto fluorescent diamond filmsIf successfulthe diamond spectrometer will be used to quantify metabolic concentrations in unrefined clinical samples for applications in analytical biochemistry and drug development