Hands on

Hands-on NMR services

In addition to the open-access automated instruments that provide routine access to standard experiments, it is possible for researchers to become trained to operate instruments manually, in so-called "hands-on" mode. This provides for greater flexibility in experiment set-up and run times, and provides a greater understanding of how NMR spectrometers operate. Examples where use of the bookable instruments can be necessary include working with sample temperatures away from ambient, with unstable or more dilute samples, when more advanced techniques are required or where reaction kinetics are to be followed.

Anyone wishing to use these facilities must be trained by a member of the NMR staff in the first instance. All enquiries should be made to the NMR staff mailing list (nmrstaff@maillist.chem.ox.ac.uk). All bookable instruments are housed in the high-field basement NMR laboratory of the CRL. These range in field from 400 to 700 MHz and have wide-ranging capability between them; see our Instrumentation pages for more details. Instruments in the basement NMR lab can be reserved through an online booking system and used in ‘hands-on’ mode for manual or automated operation.

Spectrometer Booking Rules

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The hands-on instruments are available only to users who have been trained by a member of the NMR staff (nmrstaff@maillist.chem.ox.ac.uk).

Instrument reservations can be for up to two weeks ahead from the day on which the booking is made.

Bookings must be made under your own name and SSO, and are for your use only. It is not permitted to book time under your name for another user.

Bookings are made in multiples of 15-minute slots. Daytime is 8 am - 8 pm Monday to Friday, during which you may book up to a maximum of 3 hours per day (in a single or split session).

Overnight bookings must begin at 8 pm at the earliest and should terminate by 8 am.

It is acceptable for a daytime booking to directly precede an overnight booking (e.g. to book 5 pm to 8 pm, followed by 8 pm to 8 am), however only one overnight booking is permitted per week, per instrument.

No-one is permitted into the NMR labs during ‘buildings closed’ hours (midnight to 6am). If booking a partial overnight slot, experiments must be submitted using IconNMR to allow the next user to queue their experiments before building closure.

VT experiments should only be run during normal hours.

Weekend bookings have no restrictions.

If there is free instrument time but you have already booked your allotted timeslots, please contact the NMR staff to book this time.

If you have requirements that fall outside of these restrictions, you must discuss this with a member of the NMR staff.

If you do not turn up within 15 minutes of the start of your booked slot then you forfeit the entire booking and anybody else can then use the time.

Bookings will be checked weekly and any bookings breaking these rules will be deleted. Repeat offenders may find their booking privileges have been revoked.

 

The high field (600 & 700 MHz) hands-on instruments are available only to users who have been trained by a member of the NMR staff (nmrstaff@maillist.chem.ox.ac.uk). Access to the AV600 and AV700 is granted by NMR staff, primarily for research projects in Chemical Biology or metabolomics.

Instrument reservations can be for up to two weeks ahead from the day on which the booking is made.

Bookings must be made under your own name and SSO, and are for your use only. It is not permitted to book time under your name for another user.

Booking may be of any length, but are limited to a maximum of 24 hours total per week for any one user. The 24 hours may be split between the AV600 and AV700 systems are required.

If there is free instrument time but you have already booked your allotted time slots, please contact the NMR staff to book this.

If you have requirements that fall outside of these restrictions, you must discuss this with a member of the NMR staff.

If you do not turn up within 15 minutes of the start of your booked slot then you forfeit the entire booking and anybody else can then use the time.

Bookings will be checked weekly and any bookings breaking these rules will be deleted. Repeat offenders may find their booking privileges have been revoked.

 

No Part II is allowed to book time on the hands-on NMR instruments.

You are only allowed to book one overnight slot and one daytime slot at any time.

The daytime runs from 8 am to 8 pm, the overnight period runs from 8 pm to 8 am the next day.

A daytime slot may not exceed 2 hours.

Once a slot has been used you may book another similar slot.

The above restrictions can only be exceeded by prior arrangement with NMR staff.

Each day (8 am to 8 pm) on Saturday and Sunday counts as an overnight slot for booking.

If you do not turn up within 15 minutes of the start of your booked slot then you forfeit the booking and anybody else can then use the time.