Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Instrumentation Facility (NMR Facility) at Boston College Chemistry operates and maintains four Varian high-field NMR spectrometers: a 500 MHz INOVA, a 400 MHz INOVA, a 400 MHz Gemini-2000, and a 300 MHz Unity. The INOVA spectrometers are equipped with pulse-field gradients, waveform generators, and variable temperature controllers. The probes available in the facility allow users to observe most spin active nuclei and to perform state-of-the-art NMR experiments.

Four SUN Microsystems UNIX workstations running Varian NMR software are used to acquire and process NMR data. Four Solaris UNIX workstations and two Windows/LINUX workstations running a range of commercial software packages can be used for remote data processing, molecular modeling, and data archiving.

Output devices include a multi-color inkjet plotter and two LaserJet printer/plotters. The spectrometer and data processing workstations are connected to a local area network (LAN), and the output devices are made available as shared resources via this LAN. The file systems are backed-up over the LAN using Legato Networker software and a 7-tape DLT Jukebox.

Instrument time is scheduled on-line for trained NMR users. Training is performed individually for any authorized department researcher. The facility is managed and maintained by a full-time facility director who is available to all NMR users for consultation and collaboration.

Complete Facility Description
      500 MHz INOVA including probes
      400 MHz INOVA including probes
      400 MHz Gemini-2000 including probes
      300 MHz Unity including probes

1. Unity INOVA 500 NMR Spectrometer
Manufactured by Varian Associates, Serial Number UI500-S010837 including a 11.744 Tesla Oxford 500/51 mm Magnet Serial Number 98619. The spectrometer is driven by a SUN Blade 1500 workstation (workstation ID nmr3.bc.edu, serial number 4264461) with 16 Mbytes of memory containing a SunO207 207 MByte internal hard disk drive running SunOS 4.1.1, a Sun0669 669MByte disk drive, and a 31/2 inch floppy disk drive. Attached peripheral devices include a Micropolis 1598 1.2 GByte external hard disk drive, an 8 mm magnetic tape drive, and a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIIp printer/plotter. The spectrometer is attached to the LAN (IP address 172.16.38.44, hostID 5541120d, port 1-010W data1). Varian NMR software VNMR-S Rev.4.3B is installed and running. The disks are partitioned into three filesystems, /usr on sd1 partition g (207 Mbytes), /home2 on sd2 partition g (1+GBytes), and /home on sd3 partition h (669 Mbytes). Filesystems /home and /home2 are exported read-only via NFS to chk9, ch02, chf2, and chk7. The printer/plotter is made available as a shared resource over the network (printer/plotter LaserJet_300 or LaserJet_300R). Spectrometer probes include a Varian 5 mm Broadband (Serial Number 240), a Varian 5 mm Indirect Detection Probe (Serial Number 228), and a Varian 10 mm Switchable Broadband (Serial Number 225). The variable temperature controller on this instrument allows the recording of NMR spectra at temperatures ranging from –120 °C to +180 °C.

2. Unity INOVA 400AS NMR Spectrometer
Manufactured by Varian Associates, Serial Number UI400-S011156 including a 9.395 Tesla Oxford 400AS Magnet, Serial Number M02807. The spectrometer is driven by a SUN ULTRA 10 workstation (workstation ID nmr4.bc.edu) containing 64 MBytes of memory and a Sun1.05 1.05 GByte internal hard disk drive running Solaris 2.4 and a second Seagate ST31230W 1.23 GByte internal drive. Attached peripheral devices include a Seagate 1.2 GByte external hard disk drive, a 644 MByte external CD-ROM drive, and an IBM Lexmark PS-4079 color plotter. The spectrometer is attached to the LAN (IP address 172.16.38.37, port 1-011W data1). Varian NMR software VNMR-X Rev.5.1A is installed and running. The disks are partitioned into three filesystems, /usr on sd1 partition g (207 Mbytes), /home on sd3 partition g (2+GBytes), and /home2 on sd3 partition h (2+GBytes). Filesystems /home and /home2 are exported read-only via NFS to ch01, ch02, chf2, and chk9. The plotter is made available as a shared resource over the network (plotter Lex and Small-Lex). Spectrometer probes include a Varian 40-162 MHz 5 mm Switchable Broadband (Serial Number P396) and a Varian 5 mm 1H/19F/13C/31P Auto-nmr (Serial Number P1695). The variable temperature controller on this instrument allows the recording of NMR spectra at temperatures ranging –120 °C to +180 °C.

3. Gemini/2000 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer
The spectrometer is manufactured by Varian (serial number G400-S008182) including a 9.395 Tesla Oxford 400/54 mm Magnet (serial number 94853.) The spectrometer is driven by a SUN Ultra 10 workstation (Ultra SPARC-III, 333 MHz, workstation ID nmr1, serial number FW92320990) with 256 Mbytes of memory containing an IDE 8.5Gbyte internal hard disk drive running Solaris 8 (kernel version 108528-15) and a 31/2 inch floppy disk drive. The workstation is attached to the LAN (IP address 172.16.38.34, hostid 80a9067c, port 1-011W telephone). Varian VNMR6.1C software is installed. An IBM Lexmark PS-4079 color plotter is attached via serial port - ttya. Spectrometer probes include a Varian 40-162 MHz 5 mm Switchable Broadband (Serial Number P396) and a Varian 5 mm 1H/19F/13C/31P Auto-nmr (Serial Number P1695).

4. Unity 300 NMR Spectrometer
The spectrometer is manufactured by Varian (serial number U300-5938) including a 7.0463 Tesla Varian 300/51 mm Magnet (serial number 6180.) The spectrometer is driven by a SUN Ultra 10 workstation (Ultra SPARC-III, 333 MHz, workstation ID nmr2, serial number FW92320993) with 256 Mbytes of memory containing an IDE 8.5Gbyte internal hard disk drive running Solaris 8 (kernel version 108528-13) and a 31/2 inch floppy disk drive. The workstation is attached to the LAN (IP address 172.16.38.35, hostid 80a8e71d, port 1-011W data1). Varian VNMR6.1C software is installed. Spectrometer probes include a Nalorac 30-122 MHz 5 mm Dual Broadband (Serial Number 9202-1318A), a Varian 5 mm Switchable Broadband (Serial Number 236), a Varian 9-30 MHz 10 mm Broadband (Serial Number 202), and a Varian 45-130 MHz 10 mm Broadband (Serial Number 205).