NMR Facility Policies

• Access: Only Faculty/Staff and students with who have been certified by the Facility Manager may enter the NMR Facility, no guests are allowed in the facility Maintenance people and other non-student, non-NMR users require the approval of the Facility Manager to enter the NMR Facility
• Sample Breakage:If a sample is broken in/on or around the NMR Magnet or workstation the NMR Manager must be informed or if the Manager is not present a broken tube form must be filled out 

Magnet Safety

All users should be aware of the potential issues with bringing magnetic objects within the 5 gauss lines of the magnets that are marked by the yellow caution signs

These problems include:

1. The high magnetic fields generated from these instruments can interfere with the proper functioning of pacemakers, prosthetics etc
2. Credit/ATM cards, digital cameras, and other magnetic media can be erased by the magnetic fields
3. The strong magnetic fields can turn small, loose metallic objects such as hand tools into dangerous projectiles
4. Bringing large magnetic objects such as metal stools, carts or gas tanks within the 5 gauss lines is likely to cause a dangerous situation which could both damage the magnets and injure users

General Statement of Policies and Usage

The Philosophy of this Facility is to help students/researchers to learn about NMR by hands on experience, therefore, departmental users are strongly encouraged to run their own samples after proper training.  Occasional departmental users samples will be run free of charge.  Users from outside the department or outside the University will be charged for instrument time, and if necessary instrument operator/data analysis times at rates listed in the Fees section below.

• The purpose of the NMR Laboratories is to support researchers in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and other users at the University of Windsor.
• Because it is a shared facility, everyone using it must abide by the rules established for the good of the whole community of instrument users.  This is our facility therefore anything you do to diminish or improve it affects you and everyone else using it.  
• Users who are unable to follow these guidelines will lose their privileges to use the instruments.
• If you wish to use a new NMR technique or have a problem that you think may be solved by using NMR then please speak to the Facility  Coordinator
• Please do not change parameters in the NMR experiments without discussion with and permission of the Facility Coordinator.

If you observe any problems with the instruments or facility:

• Please inform the Facility Coordinator as soon as possible by telling him directly or leaving a comment in the sign-up book, on the white board near the sign-up books or by leaving a note on my desk or by emailing him at: mrevingt@uwindsor.ca
• If there is a serious problem with an instrument and the Facility Coordinator is not around then please leave a note on the instrument to warn subsequent users of the problem and notify Beth Kickham.

• You cannot confirm the booking of any instrument yourself until you have been trained and approved by the Facility Manager to do so. Uncertified users cannot use spectrometers unless accompanied by a certified user
   
• Individuals may sign up for a maximum of one hour of time between 8:30AM and 5:00PM for routine acquisitions. studnets may book up to 4 non-consecutive session during the day.  Do not try to "group book" the instruments to get around scheduling restrictions.
   
• Experiments requiring blocks of time longer than 1hour such as 2D, VT or kinetic studies may be run in the 9 am 5 pm if approved in advance the Facility Manager.  Approval will depend on instrument availability and on the judgment of the Manager. When long experiments have been approved any complaints should be directed to the Facility Manager not the researcher
   
• If you have time booked on a machine that you are not going to use then please be courteous and cancel, if you know another user is waiting please inform them
   
• The AVIII, US300 and the 300-B82 (provided there is no interference with the undergraduate labs use)  may be booked for overnight use to begin no earlier than 4:30PM. The DPX 300 cannot be booked for overnight before 7:00PM. 
   
• Overnight experiments will be terminated at ~9 :00AM on weekdays by the Facility Manager, the sample will be removed and left in a conspicuous position on the desktop, however, it is the user’s responsibility to mark their tube so that they can identify it. 
   
• On weekends any user may stop an overnight experiment after 9 am
  Remember to type halt (instead of stop) when terminating a running experiment or the data will not be saved

Variable temperature experiments can result in serious damage to the magnet and probe if not set up and monitored properly.

• No one can run VT experiments without training by the Facility Manager.
   
• No one can run VT without prior notification of the Facility Manager both for approval and to enable the Manager to refill liquid N2 in dewars before starting.
   
• When running VT experiments the users must be present to monitor the temperature
   
• Experiments being run above 40°C or below -40°C require the use of the white, ceramic spinners
   
• When putting the heat exchanger in the N2 dewar there is likely to be some overflow of LN2, therefore shorts and open toed shoes are prohibited
   
• When booking VT experiments please book sufficient time for set up and re-equilibration to room temperature so that other users will not be inconvenienced

• Students may not run samples from undergraduate lab courses without permission from the Course supervisor and the Facility manager    
        
• Individuals from outside the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry can use these spectrometers only with permission and for established rates
   
• Food and Beverages are not permitted at the spectrometer workstations
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• Users must never open the door to the NMR Centre to allow unknown or unqualified individuals to enter
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• You must remove your latex gloves before entering either of the NMR Laboratories because they are coated with talcum powder that will contaminate the sample spinners.

Sample Handling:

• Spinners should always be removed from NMR tubes when they are not in the magnet. Sample tubes should be placed in the racks provided and spinners should be placed upside down on the computer desks. Spinners cost more than $150 and can be damaged by solvents from broken NMR tubes.
• Always take your samples back with you when you are done, leaving unlabelled chemical samples around is inappropriate under any circumstances.
• The NMR facility takes no responsibility for samples left behind, they will be disposed of as seen fit

Sample Preparation:

• Users are expected to supply their own NMR tubes and to purchase their own deuterated lock solvents and other materials
• Standard 5mm NMR tubes are used in all of our instruments
• Lock files are available on most instruments for standard deuterated solvents, if you cannot find a lock file for you solvent please contact the Facility Coordinator and he will create one
• The liquid sample in the NMR tube should be 4 cm or more tall, shorter samples will be difficult to shim and have distorted line shapes
• Signal to noise increases linearly with sample concentration but as the square root of the number of scans therefore to double the signal to noise of the a spectrum you can double the concentration and run for the same amount of time or run 4X as long, for overnight 13C acquisitions this is a serious concern

• Data will be stored on the NMR computers local hard disks at the user's risk.
• The NMR Facility will make every effort to periodically back up the hard drives of the spectrometers, however, the responsibility for back-ups is on the students/researchers and no guarantees of preservation of data are made. YOUR DATA IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
• It is recommended to make a copy of your data to a USB drive from the NMR computers for your own archive or to periodically burn a CD or DVD of your data directories.
• Stored files on the NMR computers local hard disk can last from one day to several years. Files older than six months may be purged or archived depending on the circumstances when disk space is required. We will do everything we can to keep your data in an active state for the duration of your Graduate/Postgraduate years. However you are responsible for backups of your data in the event of a disk failure.
• If you are removing files, they should be erased from the oldest dates first. IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHICH FILES MAY BE DELETED, ASK !!!