Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and complimentary techniques such as X-ray crystallography, X-ray powder diffraction and ab initio calculations are to be applied for the characterization of anisotropic NMR interactions, dynamic motion and chemical and structural properties of a variety of chemical substances and inorganic materials.

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NMR of inorganic and organometallic materials. Much of our research focuses upon applying solid-state NMR to a wide variety of inorganic and organometallic materials for the purposes of studying molecular structure and dynamics.  Materials include: main group and transition metal metallocenes, inorganic main group and transition metal coordination compounds, host-guest interactions in mesoporous metal oxides, organic-inorganic hybrid supramolecular frameworks and nanoparticles and a selection of other interesting systems.

Unreceptive nuclei and signal enhancement.  We are also interested in solid-state NMR studies of unreceptive quadrupolar nuclei with low magnetogyric ratios and/or natural abundances, as well as quadrupolar nuclei with nuclear electric quadrupolar moments that cause NMR spectra to be broadened beyond the limits of current detectable bandwidths.  We use a variety of specialized NMR pulse sequences to acquire useful NMR spectra of such systems, with much focus on the QCPMG (quadrupolar Carr-Purcell Meiboom-Gill) spin echo, MQMAS and STMAS NMR pulse sequences.  We are designing experiments which will make nuclei such as 25Mg, 39K, 49Ti, 59Co, 91Zr and 93Nb more accessible for solid-state NMR experiments at standard magnetic field strengths.

The origin of NMR interactions.  In combination with our experiments, we use theoretical methods to study the origin of NMR interactions like chemical shielding and the quadrupolar interaction.  Programs like Gaussian 03 and Amsterdam Density Functional Theory are utilized to calculate theoretical NMR interaction tensors, and to examine their orientation in the molecule and their relationships to molecular symmetry. Analyses can be conducted to determine which types of molecular and/or atomic orbitals make major contributions to NMR interactions.

Students interested in obtaining a Ph.D. in Chemistry in the area of Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance should contact me at rschurko@uwindsor.ca

I am currently seeking applications only from post-doctoral fellows with previous experience in solid-state NMR!  Please email full CV to rschurko@uwindsor.ca