Renewal Console Solid-State NMR 400 MHz

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 581781599

The proposed console, as a central component of a 400 MHz solid-state NMR spectrometer, will be used to address research questions in the field of structure and dynamics in soft condensed matter, particularly in synthetic and biological polymer systems and self-organized small molecules. In the field of synthetic polymers, structure-dynamics-property relationships are being investigated using a combination of various NMR methods, including static ones (1H time-domain NMR, relaxometry, broad-line spectroscopy, multidimensional exchange NMR, diffusometry, but also high-resolution solid-state NMR), while proteins in the solid state are primarily a domain of high-resolution and multidimensional magic-angle spinning (MAS)-based methods. Ongoing projects in the field of synthetic polymers deal with orientation order in stretched polymer glasses, the network mesh structure and transport phenomena in various types of elastomers and gels, structure formation and dynamics in semicrystalline polymers, and relaxation mechanisms in supramolecular networks. In the broader field of materials science, we are investigating the structure formation and functionality of organic scaffold structures, while in the field of biological macromolecules, the focus is on rotational and translational diffusion in transiently assembling and phase-separating proteins, as well as global rocking motions of proteins in the solid state. Future projects will increasingly focus on sustainable polymer materials, where the interplay of chemical reversible cross-linking (vitrimers) and the control of semicrystalline morphology, as well as their relationship to mechanical behavior, will be at the forefront. Molecular self-organization phenomena, e.g., in biological or synthetic membrane systems, are a possible topic for a future junior research group.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Erneuerung Konsole Festkörper-NMR 400 MHz
• Instrumentation Group: 1741 Festkörper-NMR-Spektrometer
• Applicant Institution: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
• Leader: Professor Kay Saalwächter