Advanced NMR Methods for Complex Mixture Analysis Driven by Industrial Challenges

Reliable characterisation of active pharmaceutical ingredients is key to understanding the properties of drug formulations. In particular, assessing purity at various stages in production is essential, as it is a requirement that low-level impurities need to be identified and characterised in order for a new drug to receive regulatory approval. NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for structural analysis of pure compounds. However, current NMR methods struggle to extract the required information in a straightforward and reliable manner from complex mixtures.

This project is focused on the development and application of advanced NMR methods that maximise our ability to identify and characterise low-level species present in mixtures. Throughout the project, experiment, theory and computer simulation will proceed hand-in-hand with application to chemical problems including pharmaceutical formulations, where regulatory requirements make it necessary to quantify and characterise species present above 0.1%.