\u2018[Ernst] had a very disciplined side to him,\u2019 says Malcolm Levitt<\/a> at the University of Southampton, UK, who was one of Ernst\u2019s post-doc students at the time. Levitt recalls there being group meetings at 7.30am on Monday mornings and Ernst often turning up to the lab in his uniform, having come back from a weekend of military service.<\/p>\n \u2018But then he did have this other side of being very cultural,\u2019 says Levitt. He points out that Ernst was an accomplished violinist, a follower of Eastern philosophies and collected Tibetan \u2018tanka\u2019 prayer scrolls. Levitt says that Ernst\u2019s driven nature, combined with his more relaxed approach to life, made him quite a \u2018complex person\u2019.<\/p>\n Ernst spent most of his academic career working on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy \u2013 a technique that has become a standard tool in many chemists\u2019 toolboxes<\/a>. Ernst was awarded the prize for developing high-resolution NMR techniques<\/a>. This included two-dimensional NMR (2D NMR) and using mathematical tools to create more resolved spectra. Such techniques have transformed how chemists analyse the structure of organic molecules, proteins and solid-state materials.<\/p>\n Despite how far NMR has come on since early attempts in the 1930s, and even since Ernst became a Nobel laureate, NMR still has its downfalls. Signals from NMR-active nuclei are weaker than those produced in other spectroscopic techniques, meaning NMR experiments often need large amounts of sample. NMR instruments also require cooling magnets to just above 0K with liquid helium, which makes using these instruments in the field for on-site analysis nearly impossible.<\/p>\n Chemists are now trying to find ways to overcome some of these challenges, whether that\u2019s by drastically increasing NMR\u2019s sensitivity or reducing the size of NMR instruments. Others are also applying NMR in exotic situations, such as studying atoms inside working batteries.<\/p>\n NMR\u2019s origin story<\/p>\n Before Ernst and other chemists started using NMR, Levitt notes that \u2018for a while, NMR was developed by physicists\u2019. The field inadvertently started with Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach conducting their notable experiment in the 1920s, where they passed a beam of silver atoms through a magnetic field. The beam split in two, providing the first evidence that atoms can have a fixed, or quantised, magnetic moment .<\/p>\n A decade later, US physicist Isidor Rabi modified the Stern\u2013Gerlach experiment to determine the magnetic moments of atomic nuclei such as hydrogen and lithium. For this work, he won the 1944 Nobel prize in physics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Levitt notes that the next advance in NMR came out of the radar technology developed to spot ships and planes during the second world war. \u2018There were numerous efforts to detect NMR in bulk matter \u2026 and it was first demonstrated by two groups on opposite sides of the US,\u2019 he says. On the west coast, at Stanford University, Felix Bloch showed in 1946 that applying a radio frequency perpendicular to a beam of neutrons<\/a> in a magnetic field generated a detectable signal. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the east coast, Edward Mills Purcell and his team were able to do similar experiments using solid paraffin wax<\/a>. These discoveries led to the pair sharing the 1952 Nobel prize<\/a> in physics.<\/p>\n Physicists began using this technique on a variety of solid, liquid and gas samples. But they discovered that local magnetic moments generated by nearby nuclei, otherwise known as spin\u2013spin coupling, also affected transitions. Scientists also proposed the idea of chemical shift \u2013 the resonant frequency of a particular nucleus relative to a standard frequency \u2013 to be able to compare samples more easily.<\/p>\n Levitt says that this came as a \u2018huge disappointment for physicists because they were interested in measuring the magnetic properties of nuclei\u2019. \u2018[But] it was soon recognised that the chemical shift and spin\u2013spin couplings were an incredible tool for chemists.\u2019 The next few decades saw chemists leading the way in developing NMR.<\/p>\n How NMR spectroscopy works<\/p>\n Neutrons and protons have an intrinsic property called spin \u2013 the angular momentum that a particle has when it rotates about its axis. These particles have a spin value of a half and for nuclei with an odd number of protons and neutrons, this leads to a non-integer spin. In this case, the nuclei can spin aligned with the axis (giving a +\u00bd value) or against (giving a -\u00bd value). A nucleus\u2019s magnetic moment is proportional to its spin, leading to the silver atoms in the Stern\u2013Gerlach experiment having two opposite magnetic moments.<\/p>\n Applying a magnetic field to a sample causes the nuclei to split into those with \u2018up\u2019 spins and those with \u2018down\u2019. \u2018Up\u2019 nuclei become lower in energy as they align with the magnetic field, and the remaining nuclei that align against the field become higher in energy. This effect \u2013 known as the Zeeman effect \u2013 is weak, as the magnetic moment of nuclei is small, meaning there is only a slight difference in energy between \u2018up\u2019 and \u2018down\u2019 spins. As a result, NMR experiments typically require large amounts of sample to get a strong enough signal, which is challenging when analysing trace substances, for example.<\/p>\n Using radio frequencies \u2013 typically in the megahertz (MHz) range \u2013 that match the energy difference between the spin states then excites the lower-energy nuclei to the higher-energy state, before they relax back down to give a signal. The specific frequency needed increases with the strength of the magnetic field, the magnetic moment of a given nucleus and the chemical environment.<\/p>\n Taking NMR to the next dimension<\/p>\n Once chemists had realised that NMR offered them a way to determine a molecule\u2019s structure, companies soon began making commercial NMR instruments. In California, US, the manufacturer Varian produced one of the first \u2018off-the-shelf\u2019 NMR machines in the 1960s. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Swiss company Bruker also started producing instruments.<\/p>\n After finishing his PhD, Ernst joined Varian as a research scientist. There, he built on the work of theoretical chemist Hans Primas. Levitt explains that Primas\u2019s discovery was to take the Fourier transform of the oscillating nuclei to create a pulse sequence. A Fourier transform is a mathematic function that in this case transforms a complex wave signal into the familiar spectrum of the individual frequencies present in the wave.<\/p>\n \u2018What Ernst did was turn that around and realised you could measure the pulse response and then take the Fourier transform computationally,\u2019 says Levitt. This made doing what was previously a challenging and time-consuming calculation to do by hand solvable by computers in a matter of minutes. He adds that Ernst was also in the right place to do this, as many of the latest tech developments were happening in Silicon Valley. There was also a better algorithm that had recently come out of the field of seismology to measure earthquakes, which Ernst was also able to use .<\/p>\n Until then, NMR relied on holding the magnetic field constant while scanning across a range of radio frequencies (or vice versa) \u2013 a technique known as continuous-wave NMR. This method identified the specific frequencies absorbed by a particular nucleus. Ernst\u2019s new discovery instead meant that scientists could apply a radio frequency pulse \u2013 typically lasting a few microseconds \u2013 and measure the signal at different time points. Taking the Fourier transform of this signal helped chemists resolve chemical complexity with much higher detail. For this, as well as developing 2D NMR, Ernst won the Nobel prize in 1991.<\/p>\n The idea for 2D NMR came from another scientist, however. It was at a summer school in former Yugoslavia where one of Ernst\u2019s students went to a talk by Belgian chemist Jean Jeener, where he introduced the technique, says Levitt. \u2018Ernst had drilled his students to take copious, very detailed notes,\u2019 he says, adding that \u2018Ernst would then go through them in great detail when they came back from the meeting\u2019.<\/p>\n Jeener announced at the meeting that he had tried a few experiments but could not generate any useful results. Ernst waited for Jeener to publish something, so that he could get working on the same technique. However, Jeener \u2018hardly published anything\u2019, says Levitt. \u2018In the end, Ernst went out and published an enormous paper with his group, which is the cornerstone of 2D NMR.\u2019 Levitt says that Jeener and Ernst later worked together in this field.<\/p>\n Making NMR more sensitive<\/p>\n NMR has certainly come a long way since its infancy. Chemists can now resolve the structure of biological samples like proteins<\/a>, and determine the distance between atoms in solid-state materials using methods like magic-angle spinning NMR.<\/p>\n Because of its universal applicability to many research fields, it\u2019s plausible to think that NMR is a \u2018mature\u2019 technique. Yet NMR still poses several challenges. One of the biggest drawbacks of this tool is its lack of sensitivity, owing to the weak interactions between nuclei and the instrument\u2019s magnets. \u2018NMR\u2019s Achilles heel is the sensitivity,\u2019 says Melanie Britton<\/a> at the University of Birmingham, UK.<\/p>\n Increasing the strength of the magnetic field can overcome this issue. This widens the energy gap between \u2018up\u2019 and \u2018down\u2019 nuclei so that there are more \u2018up\u2019 spins that can interact with a radio frequency pulse. Last year, the University of Warwick in the UK received one of the strongest NMR magnets in the world<\/a>, which will allow scientists to carry out experiments using 1.2GHz pulses.<\/p>\n However, these superconducting magnets are enormous (with the one in Warwick weighing over 10 tonnes) and expensive. Simon Duckett<\/a> at the University of York in the UK says that fortunately there are other methods to improve NMR\u2019s sensitivity, including hyperpolarisation.<\/p>\n Broadly speaking, this involves altering the magnetic properties of the materials themselves, so that more molecules have \u2018up\u2019 nuclei. In unhyperpolarised samples, only 1 in every 200,000 molecules<\/a> are detected, as the spins of the other 199,999 cancel each other. Hyperpolarising a sample means that all molecules are detectable, increasing the signal intensity by up to 200,000 times.<\/p>\n Dynamic nuclear polarisation is one technique that chemists can use to do this, by transferring super cooled radicals \u2013 with their own magnetic moment pointing in a specific direction \u2013 to a sample. Duckett explains that scientists have used this method to generate polarised pyruvate, which can then be injected into patients. As pyruvate is an intermediate in many metabolic pathways, this can help clinicians identify tumour cells or probe the impact of a heart attack, for example.<\/p>\n Instead of radicals, chemists can also use parahydrogen \u2013 a version of the dihydrogen molecule where the hydrogen nuclei have opposing spins. Reacting parahydrogen with alkenes or metal complexes breaks its symmetry, with each molecule now having an \u2018up\u2019 hydrogen nuclei. While not applicable to all systems, this technique could still help chemists detect intermediates in catalytic cycles or short-lived species.<\/p>\n \u2018The benefits of hyperpolarisation are that it facilitates heteronuclear detection,\u2019 says Duckett. \u2018Often the chemical shift range of a hetero nucleus is much larger than that of a proton, and that in itself means that if you drop the magnetic field, you 1790629451 still have the potential to see and resolve a signal.\u2019<\/p>\n Other researchers are taking a different approach to NMR\u2019s sensitivity issue. For example, chemists are developing NMR microcoils \u2013 small spiralled electrical wires less than 1mm in diameter that can hold up to 1\u03bcL of sample. These coils lead to a higher signal-to-noise ratio, which allows chemists to carry out experiments with limited sample or compounds that are insoluble at the high concentrations needed by typical NMR instruments.<\/p>\n Increasing NMR\u2019s sensitivity allows chemists to study molecules and materials more accurately. Equally, superconducting magnets may not have to be so large or strong to create the same signal strength, decreasing the amount of liquid helium needed<\/a> to cool them. This helps shelter researchers and hospitals from the variable prices of the non-renewable gas.<\/p>\n These strategies also make benchtop NMR machines more accurate and opens the door for carrying out real-time analysis of samples away from a fixed laboratory. Researchers are also looking at ways to generate signals with magnets that have zero or low-magnetic fields, such as by using the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, as well as those that generate a magnetic field closer to room temperature. \u2018Being cryogen-free is really important,\u2019 says Britton, \u2018so then that can allow the technique to go to a much broader range of people and economies and countries around the world.\u2019<\/p>\n New applications of NMR<\/p>\n As Britton notes, \u2018there\u2019s a lot more to NMR than deuterated solvents and 5ml NMR tubes\u2019. Her work involves putting metals into NMR machines to study corrosion, electrodeposition and what\u2019s happening inside working batteries. \u2018I usually describe the work that we do [in my group] as exotic,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n Britton\u2019s first foray into this field began with a colleague having \u2018a crazy idea\u2019 to look at the corrosion of zinc metal in a saturated lithium chloride electrolyte solution<\/a>. \u2018I was very reluctant because in those days nobody ever put metals into a magnet,\u2019 she says. But, to her surprise, she found that analysing the signals from protons in water could give information about the concentration of zinc and the local environment around zinc ions. This was one of the first studies that used in-situ NMR.<\/p>\n Clare Grey<\/a> at the University of Cambridge, UK, has built on Britton\u2019s work to non-invasively study how lithium-ion battery electrodes and electrolytes change as the battery charges and discharges. This primarily relies on analysing the concentration and environment of lithium-seven nuclei, but other NMR active nuclei<\/a> are also helpful. This includes carbon-13 and proton for redox flow batteries, sulfur-33 for lithium\u2013sulfur batteries and oxygen-17 for lithium\u2013air batteries.<\/p>\n \u2018You can\u2019t put any old metal into the magnet,\u2019 says Britton, adding that that if its magnetic, like iron, then it won\u2019t come out of the machine. Analysing samples encased in metal is also difficult as the NMR\u2019s radio frequency pulses can\u2019t penetrate deep enough, she says.<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/551535_portr_16008copy_554584.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Apparatus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/551539_warwick_uni_magnet_delivery_to_use_897511_crop_crop.jpg\")
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