Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Dynamic Magnetic Environments CYNTHIA TURCIOS 1,2 , JACOB DONOHOUE 1,2 , JERICHO OVIEDO 1,2 , MEGAN CASSIDY 1,2 , JOHN FROST PH.D. 1,2,3,4 1 NASA HUNCH, 2 Cherry Creek School District, 3 American Chemical Society Science Coaches, 4 picoSpin LLC. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people and organizations for their generous support and encouragement. Florence Gold Ph.D. and the NASA Research and Development, Education, and Reduced Gravity Offices Mr. Richard Charles and the Cherry Creek School District Mr. Gleb Gofin of KNF Labs and picoSpin LLC. Conclusion The microgravity flights produced changes in the magnetic environment equal to 83% of the maximum magnetic field change experienced onboard the ISS. The NMR spectrum of both water and acetone free nail polish were acquired and their basic spectral characteristics were assessed and compared to our control spectra. While there was some reduction in performance the line width (72 ppb) and SNR (339:1) were still found to be within the minimum specification set by the manufacturer. We believe this demonstrates the feasibility of effectively bringing the analytical power of NMR spectroscopy to the research and service needs of the ISS. Figure I: NMR is extremely sensitive to changes in the external magnetic environment. This plot shows the overlay of the first 100 spectra acquired during the microgravity flight. The position of the Z-axis of the instrument’s magnetic field changes in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field which causes a change in the total field experienced by the protons under observation and therefore their Larmor frequency. References: 1.) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geophysical Data Center Magnetic Field Calculator, IGRF 11 Model, http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag-web/#igrfwmm, Accessed 6-11-12 2.) Heavens Above ISS-Orbit, http://www.heavens-above.come/orbit.aspx?satid=25544, Accessed 5-10-12 Figure III: Expansion of Figure II during the first half of the flight path while headed due south. The change in slope is due to the relative orientation of the instruments Z-axis and the Earth’s magnetic field. Figure IV: Expansion of Figure II during the second half of the microgravity flight. Because the plane was now headed due North the relative orientation of the instruments Z-axis while the plane climbing is opposite that of when the plane was traveling South. Background and Concept A nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (NMR), provides qualitative and quantitative chemical information of purity and structure both rapidly and non-destructively. NMR’s are typically large in size, which has prevented their deployment in space. However, due to recent advancements in the technology it has become feasible to bring this technology to the International Space Station (ISS). However, NMR is extremely sensitive to external magnetic fields and the ISS experiences a 43 μT shift in the Earth’s magnetic field with each orbit. We utilized the parabolic flight path used by NASA’s microgravity flight program to simulate these changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and investigate the affects on the acquired spectrum using a new-to-market commercially available NMR spectrometer Figure II: Larmor frequency offset (Hz) / change in the magnetic field strength (μT) as a function of time over the course of the microgravity flight.