Collaborative Computer Project: NMR Crystallography

Numerous high impact societal issues require the intelligent design of novel materials, e.g. for next generation power sources, high-efficiency ecological materials and materials with optimal degradation/ recycling characteristics. Understanding atomic-level structure and dynamics is key to harnessing the properties of increasingly complex new materials, and this represents one of the major challenges across the physical sciences in the early 21st Century.

Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SSNMR) spectroscopy provides extremely detailed insights into ordered and disordered materials at the sub-nanometre scale. Recent exciting advances have allowed an evolution from empirical interpretations of measured parameters to a deeper understanding of materials structure and properties by merging experimental and in silico approaches. This has lead to the emerging field of "NMR crystallography", which we define here as the combined use of experimental NMR and computation to provide new insight, with atomic resolution, into structure, disorder and dynamics in the solid state.

The Collaborative Computer Project for NMR Crystallography will support a multidisciplinary community of NMR spectroscopists, crystallographers, materials modellers and application scientist by developing and integrating software across these area. These range from first-principles electronic structure predictions of the key NMR interaction tensors through to the simulation of nuclear spin interactions for direct comparison with experimental spectra. Through a flagship project the scope will be increased to cover paramagnetic systems, addressing materials for Li-ion batteries and catalysis. CCP-NC will leverage the RCUK investment in solid-state NMR infrastructure, and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of this emerging discipline.

We have identified a number of pathways by which the outputs of the proposed research will impact more widely than the more obvious academic research implications (which is detailed in the "Academic Beneficiaries" section). These additional routes include both economic and educational impact.

A direct impact is to companies who use solid-state NMR in-house. For example, the pharmaceutical companies such as GSK, AZ, Sanofi-Avensis all have in-house solid-state NMR spectrometers with experienced personnel as does Johnson Matthey in the field of catalysis.

A direct economic impact of this research is the potential for commercialisation of the outputs, particularly related to the development for paramagnetic NMR in the CASTEP software. Accelrys Inc. (see www.accelrys.com) provide a commercially supported version of the CASTEP software to Industrial users which is licensed from the CASTEP Developers Group.

In the longer term outputs of the project will also have indirect impact on researchers in Materials and Life Sciences who use information derived from NMR. These consist of both academics and industrial companies interested in developing new or better materials for a wide range of applications, e.g. for energy storage, fuel cell and battery related materials, for nuclear waste disposal, as catalysts, new bioactive materials.

The integrated NMR Crystallography software can be used for educational purposes. Many universities include courses on molecule/materials modelling at the undergraduate level, and the CCP-NC software enables linking to spectroscopy topics. The project will involve the training of post-graduate students and PDRA some of whom will go on to use these skills in industry (previous students and PDRA with the Investigators are carrying out NMR work at companies such as GSK, Johnson Matthey, and Agilent Technologies)

All of the investigators' institutions already have well established outreach programmes; for example, summer schools for high-school students. The wide areas of application touched by this proposal will feedback into these presentations, and we can use our expertise to further inform and inspire young people in science.