We develop both the instrumentation and the methodology to go beyond the current sensitivity limits with the goal to significantly enlarge the scope of solid-state NMR measurements. These developments are used to reach levels of sensitivity and resolution that have never been achieved, in order to tackle highly-relevant chemical and biological questions that can't be solved by X-ray or solution-state NMR. Among the recent important contributions we made, we used MAS-DNP to probe ¹³C-¹³C proximities (~hours long experiments) at natural isotopic abundance.This is an important approach for various systems that cannot be easily isotopically enriched and for which X-ray analysis is often not suitable. We also showed that MAS-DNP could be used to answer a decades’ old problem of siloxane condensation networks (using ²⁹Si-²⁹Si proximities) and probe the surface structure of catalytic aluminas (using ²⁷Al-²⁷Al proximities and MQMAS experiments), as well as on bacterial cells. Overall, our systems of interest are rather broad and range from biomolecules and bio-materials to polymers and inorganic systems. These efforts are often combined with other expertize in EPR, DFT, and radical synthesis either through local or (inter)national collaborations.

On the instrumentation side, our effort currently involves a strong collaboration between researchers / engineers / technicians from the MEM and SBT laboratories at Inac to reach sustainable closed-loop cryogenic helium sample spinning. After several years of effort, we have successfully assembled a first-generation cryostat that is currently under testing in the DNP laboratory. The "ultra-low" temperature measurements are conducted on a prototype probe developed by Bruker Biospin.

Eric Bouleau

Pierre Dalban-Moreynas

Adam Smith

Diego Gauto

Ildefonso Marin-Montesinos

Katharina Märker

Sachin Chaudhari

Frédéric Mentink-Vigier

Nghia Tuan Duong

Subhradip Paul

Carlos Fernadez

Hiroki Takahashi

Monu Kaushik

Bastien Viverge

Alexis Ponchon

Lucian Caliap

Myriam Chanal

Lida Esfandiary