Contact
Liquid state NMR at 400 MHz, 500 MHz, 600 MHz and 800 MHz
Center leader liquid state NMR from May 1st 2025. Associate Professor Marte Sofie Martinsen Holmsen
NMR engineer from March 1st 2025. Ph.D. student M.Sc. Kristian Sørnes
Retired Professor Emeritus, from March 1st 2025. Professor EM Frode Rise
Solid state NMR at 500 MHz (SINTEF - Oslo), 600 MHz (from 2027 in the Life Science Building - UiO) and 800 MHz (UiO)
Center leader solid state NMR. Professor (II) Senior Scientist Bjørnar Arstad
Engineer (PhD student) from March 1st. 2025. Kristian Sørnes
History
Originally the "Organic NMR" laboratory serviced only the Section for Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, but has over the years grown into a multi disciplinary NMR Center. As most NMR laboratories for Organic Chemistry the laboratory housed a variety of low field instruments originally. The first spectrometer arriving was a Varian A60 instrument (1966), followed by a Varian HA100-15D instrument (1969), a Jeol FX60 instrument (1974), a Varian XL 300 instrument (1983) and finally a JEOL PMX60 spectrometer (1987). None of these instruments are in use any more. The XL-300 magnet quenched during a large dynamite blast when the Helga Engs Building was constructed at the Blindern campus. The Chemistry building was shaking heavily and it was not possible to charge the XL 300 magnet after that incident. The "Physical NMR" laboratory initially installed a Bruker CXP 200 NMR instrument in 1981. The instrument was upgraded to a DMX 200 system in 1995. The 200 MHz magnet was still alive until mid 2009 when it was shut down - while at the same time SINTEF in Oslo purchased a new solid state Bruker Avance III 500 MHz instrument. A Maran Ultra low field (0.5 T) NMR instrument intended for relaxation and diffusion studies was installed in 2003. The Varian Gemini 200 instrument from 1989 was owned jointly with the School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo - which owned 25% of the instrument. The Gemini 200 instrument was the first instrument to be set up as a self service instrument. Prior to this purchase an engineer was responsible to acquire and plot 1H and 13C spectra for the whole organic chemistry section. This was actually a horrible job for that person, constantly pressed to produce more and more spectra.
Professor Per Kolsaker set up the Gemini 200 instrument for self service and he has probably never got enough credit for this job. Kolsaker´s contribution in this respect to turning the NMR facility into a modern facility has regretfully largely been overlooked.
NMR-services
The University of Oslo NMR Center, to a large extent, still services the NMR needs for Organic Chemistry, but the Center is now also servicing research in; pharmacy, polymer chemistry, nuclear chemistry, organometallic chemistry, homogeneous - and heterogeneous catalysis, organic analytical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, material- and nano science, galenic pharmacy, medicinal pharmacy, botany, natural product identification, brain metabolism research, metabolomics studies, algae toxin research, protein structure elucidation and many other research fields.
Current Instruments
The University of Oslo NMR Center currently houses five superconducting NMR instruments. When relocated to the Life Science building in 2026 the NMR Center will house eight NMR instruments: three 400 MHz instruments, one 500 MHz instrument, three 600 MHz instruments and one 800 MHz instrument.
In 2026 the instrument park will consist of eight NMR instruments:
- One Bruker AVneo400 instrument equipped with an iProbe and a Sample Case NMR sample changer.
- One Bruker AVIII400 instrument with a smart probe.
- One Bruker AVIIIHD400 instrument equipped with a a smart probe and a BACS 60 sample changer.
- One Bruker AVIII500 instrument.
- One Bruker AVI600 instrument, equipped with a TCI cryo probe and a BACS 60 sample changer.
- One Bruker AVIII600 instrument with a TCI cryo probe and a Sample Case NMR sample changer. The AVIII600 electronics is capable of solid state experiments in addition to liquid state experiments.
- A new Bruker AVneo600 instrument equipped with a three channel (+ deuterium lock) probe capable of single or double 1H and 19F decoupling. Sample Case.
- One Bruker AVneo800 instrument capable of performing both liquids (TCI cryo probe and Sample Case) and solid state nmr experiments.
Liquid state NMR