Bowers Research Group
Chemistry Department, University of Florida
Chemistry Department, University of Florida
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Our research group focuses on signal enhancement methods for nuclear and electron magnetic resonance spectroscopy, including spin-exchange optical pumping, dynamic nuclear polarization, and electrical detection. These techniques are applied to solve problems in structure and dynamics in nanostructured semiconductors, nanotubes and nanoporous systems. Density matrix/operator theory, statistical mechanics, and numerical simulations are employed. Unique instrumentation is developed. Our lab and offices are located within the UF Physics Building. We are affiliated with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the UF Center for Condensed Matter Sciences.
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2010 News and Events! |
Bowers Group meetings are held each Thursday at 3pm in the small conference room in the basement of NPB. This meeting schedule will continue through the Summer term. March-April 2011 April 18th: Chris Reeg presented his honors thesis in physics, entitled "Solid-State Deuterium NMR Study of Methyl Rotation in Precisely Branched Polyethylenes." Chris' thesis earned the "highest honors" distinction, and was selected for this year's Undergraduate Thesis Award, which comes with a cash prize. This accomplishment will be recognized at the Physics Department Reception on April 29th. Congratulations Chris! The group is expanding! Check out our most recent group photo, at left. Hans Jakobsen, who is visiting from Aarhus University, Denmark, is collaborating with us on several projects involving solid-state quadrupolar NMR. We have a manuscript in preparation, entitled "Quantitative analysis of powdered polycrystalline Na24Si136 and Na8Si46 by solid-state 23Na MAS NMR spectroscopy," which involoves a collaboration with George Nolas of the University of South Florida Physics Department. Ronghui Zhou earned his Master's in Chemistry while studying in Korea. Ronghui is now a first his first student who plans to qualify in the Physical Chemistry Division. Though he has been extremely busy with teaching, taking classes, and cumes, he has managed to get a great start on his new research project involving NMR signal enhancement with parahydrogen on surfaces. Hrishi Base is a second year Analytical Division graduate student who transferred to our group after receiving his Master's in Chemistry. His new project will involve application of hyperpolarized xenon-129 NMR to characterize supported phospholipid bilayers systems. Celeste Kennard is a 4th year undergraduate majoring in Chemical Engineering. She is designing and building a new low temperature probe to facilitate NMR studies of porous materials under continuous gas flow conditions. Alex Titov is an undergraduate Chemical Engineering major who is working on the automation of various types of experiments/processes using National Instruments LabView software. Seung Y Lee is an enthusiastic Freshman Chemistry major who has been attending our group meetings. Seung will join one or more research projects this Summer. Feburary 2011 Ryan wood presented a Physical Chemistry Division seminar entitled "Power Dependence of Optically Induced Nuclear Spin Polarization in Semiconductors." Next comes his qualifying exam on March 1st. January 2011 We are delighted that Dr. Muslim Dvoyashkin has joined us as an NSF supported postdoctoral associate. Muslim earned his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Leipzig, Germany. December The CHM6430 and CHM6470 final exams are scheduled for December 7th and 8th (respectively). November Nov. 19th. Congratulations to Satyajit Phadke for passing his Ph.D. final defense! Satyajit is a collaborating student from the research group of Prof. Juan Nino in the UF Department of Materials Science. Our latest paper, "Hyperpolarized NMR in Single-File Nanotubes," by C.R. Bowers, C.-Y Cheng, T. C. Stamatatos and G. Christou, has been accepted for publication in the AIP Conference Proceedings of the MRPM-10. October Oct 22-24: The 39th Southeastern Magnetic Resonance Conference was held at the University of Florida. Bowers presented an invited talk at the meeting. September Sept. 12-16: Bowers presented an invited talk at the 10th Bologna Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Porous media (MRPM 10) in Leipzig, Germany. The conference was held in the Physics Building, shown below. August Classes begin August 23rd. Bowers is teaching two graduate classes: CHM6470, Chemical Bonding and Spectra, and CHM6430, Chemical Thermodynamics.
Aug. 9th: Professor Lucio Frydman of the Weizmann Insitute visited UF and presented a seminar entitled “NMR, MRI & EPR Coming Together in the Aid of Structure Elucidation: Ultrafast, Ultrasensitive Multidimensional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.” July 2010 We congratulate collaborating student Yuying Wei, of the Wagener group, for successfully passing her Ph.D. final exam! Thesis title: "Understanding Precision Polyolefins by Solid State NMR Spectroscopy and x-ray scattering. June 2010 Congratulations to Amrish Menjoge, a graduate student with Prof. Sergey Vasenkov, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis! Amrish's thesis is entitled "Relationship between diffusion and structure in selected nanostructured systems by NMR." Amrish has collaborated with us on hyperpolarized xenon-129 2D Exchange NMR experiments examining gas re-adsorption effects in zeolites. The Vasenkov and Bowers groups got together to celebrate the occassion at the Gainesville Ale House. Congratulations Amrish, and best wishes for success in your new position! April Apr 18-23. The group attended the 51st Experimental NMR Conference (ENC). We stayed at a private condo adjacent to the conference venue at the Daytona Beach Hilton Oceanfront hotel. This will be the first ENC for everyone except Dr. Bowers. He attended his first ENC meeting in 1987 where he and Dan Weitekamp (recipient of the 2009 Laukien Prize) presented a poster presenting the first experimental demonstration of the PASADENA (Parahydrogen and Synthesis Allow Dramatically Enhanced Nuclear Alignment) effect . Dr. Bowers will make an oral presentation at the ENC entitled "Origin of the "Dispersion-Like" Lineshape in Resistively Detected NMR in the Quantum Hall Effect: Evidence of the Skyrme Crystal?" It will also be presented as a poster. abstract Dr. Bowers, together with co-authors Chi-Yuan Cheng, Theocharis Stamatatos, and George Christou, will also present a poster entitled "Control of the Diffusion Time-Scaling in Molecular Wheel Nanotubes as Detected by Continuous-Flow Hyperpolarized Xenon-129 NMR". abstract Congratulations to Christopher Reeg for receiving the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Chris, a junior year physics major, joined our group in Spring 2009. Using solid-state deuterium NMR, he is measuring methyl group rotational activation energies to probe chain packing in the precisely methyl branched polyethylenes. The project is a collaboration with Yuying Wei and Professor Ken Wagener. Chris will participate in the NSF REU program at Cornell University this summer. David Richardson, a student with Dr. Wallace Brey, successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis,entitled "THE RELATIVE SIGNS OF COUPLING CONSTANTS IN FLUORINATED CYCLOPROPANES AND THE AGGREGATION OF AMYLOID-BETA (25-35) PEPTIDE". He will graduate in May. Congratulations David! Judith Wollbrett-Blitz, a student at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, will join our lab for Summer 2010 as part of the NSF UF-France REU program. Welcome Judith! Ryan Wood presented a seminar to the Physical Chemistry Division on Tuesday, April 6th. Well done Ryan! Classes end April 21st. March Our paper, entitled " Molecular Wheels as Nanoporous Materials: Differing Modes of Gas Diffusion through Ga10 and Ga18 Wheels Probed by Hyperpolarized 129Xe NMR Spectroscopy," by C.-Y Cheng, T. C. Stamatatos, G. Christou, and C.R. Bowers, has appeared as an ASAP article in the J. Am. Chem. Soc. February Our paper, entitled "Resistively detected NMR of the ν=1 quantum Hall state: A tilted magnetic field study," by C.R. Bowers, G. M. Gusev, J. Jaroszynski, J.L. Reno, J.A. Simmons has appeared in Phys. Rev. B. Our PRB paper was selected for the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology. January Classes begin! Dr. Bowers is teaching CHM6461, Statistical Thermodynamics. There are four registered students and two auditors. December 2009 Caroline Pointer-Keenan successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis. She is now a postdoctoral associate with Prof. Jurgen Senker at the Universität Bayreuth, Germany. |
2nd row, L-R: Muslim Dvoyashkin, Ryan Wood, Chris Reeg, Russ Bowers, Hans Jakobsen.
1st row: Chris Akel, Seung Y Lee, Ronghui Zhou.
Absent from photo: Celeste Kennard and Alex Titov.
Caroline's Going-Away Lunch, Arredondo Cafe, December 2009
Left to Right: Chris Akel, Amrish Menjoge (Vasenkov Group), Yuying Wei (Wagener Group),
Russ Bowers, Dr. Caroline Pointer-Keenan, Ryan Wood, Chris Reeg. Missing from photo: Grace Justinvil
Research Opportunities
There are research opportunities in our lab for motivated students in physics, physical chemistry/chemical physics, analytical and materials science.
Overview. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a versatile form of spectroscopy in which radiowaves are absorbed or emitted due to nuclear spin flips. It is used widely by chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers to obtain structural and dynamical information in molecules and materials of all sorts. However, the radiofrequency quanta involved in nuclear spin flips are typically much smaller than the thermal energy, rendering NMR useless for many applications. A common theme of our research is the development and application of NMR signal enhancement methods. We apply advanced NMR techniques to a variety of solid-state materials and chemical compounds. On the theoretical side, we employ density matrix/operator calculations, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and numerical simulations to help us discover and analyze new or anomalous phenomena.
Materials
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Methods
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Research Opportunities. There are research opportunities in our lab for students at all levels, particularly in (but not necessarily limited to) the areas of physics, physical chemistry/chemical physics, analytical and materials chemistry. Group meetings are held every Thursday. Please contact us (russ@ufl.edu) for more information or to schedule a lab tour or to attend a meeting.
Gallery
| Hyperpolarized Xenon-129 NMR | |
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Studying Single-File Diffusion and Gas Exchange in L-Alanyl-L-Valine Nanotubes |
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SEM of AV Crystals |
Hyperpolarized Xe-129 EXSY and Single-File Diffusion in Ga-Wheels |
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| JACS, in press. | |
Solid-State NMR in Precisely Branched Polymers |
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Rotator phase just below melting point of PE with CD3 branches every 15 carbons, as observed by deuterium NMR. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ange.200900377 |
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Resistively Detected NMR in the Quantum Hall Effect |
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.073301 | |
9.4T Bruker Avance 400MHz Solid-State NMR Spectrometer |
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| Oxford 7T Home-built Spectrometer |
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Oxford 10T Top-Loading Helium-3 Cryostat and Our Friends from Oxford Instruments |
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Home-built Rb-Xe Spin-Exchange Optical Pumping System |
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National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee |
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Microwave Irradiation at high B/T |
Millikelvin Facility |
Refereed Publications (click for abstract and URL)
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Fall 2010: CHM6470, Chemical Bonding and Spectra I
Fall 2010: CHM6430, Thermodynamics
Spring 2010: CHM6461, Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics
Fall 2009: CHM6580, Special Topics, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: Theory and Practice
Spring 2009: CHM4411 (section 5034), Physical Chemistry I
Fall 2008: CHM6430, Thermodynamics
Spring 2008: CHM6461, Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics
Fall 2007: CHM4411L, Physical Chemistry Lab
Fall 2006: CHM4411L, Physical Chemistry I: Thermo and Kinetics
Summer A 2006: CHM4411, Physical Chemistry I: Thermo and Kinetics
Spring 2006: CHM4411, Physical Chemistry I: Thermo and Kinetics
Fall 2005: CHM4411L, Physical Chemistry Lab
Spring 2005: CHM6490, Introduction to Spectroscopy
Russ Bowers |
Shipping Address
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View UF New Physics Building in a larger map
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Clifford Russell Bowers email: russ@ufl.edu 2346 New Physics Building |
Education
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Advisor: Daniel P. Weitekamp. Thesis: "Parahydrogen and Synthesis Allows Dramatically Enhanced Nuclear Alignment" (see “Sensitivity Enhancement Utilizing Parahydrogen,” in Encyclopedia of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: Supplementary Volume, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (2002), pp. 750-770 ).
B.A. Chemistry, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, Summa Cum Laude in Chemistry.
Positions Held
2000-present. Associate Professor (tenured) of Chemistry and Associate Affiliate Professor of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville.
1994-2000. Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville.1992-1993. Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry Department, University of California, Berkeley. Advisor: Alexander Pines.
1990-1991. NATO-NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 2nd Institute of Physics, University of Stuttgart, Germany. Photon-alkali metal atom interactions in optically detected magnetic resonance. Advisor: Michael Mehring.
Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Advisor: Daniel P. Weitekamp.
Summer Undergraduate Researcher, Chemistry Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Application of Information Theory to Genetic Sequences," Advisor: Dudley R. Herschbach.
Affiliations and Activities
Division of Physical Chemistry, University of Florida.
Faculty affiliate of the UF Department of Physics.
Materials Research Society.
American Physical Society.
Center of Interdisciplinary Magnetic Resonance, National High Magnetic Field Lab.
Executive Committee, Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, University of Florida.
Center for Chemical Physics, University of Florida.
Chair, Committee on Instruction, UF Chemistry Department.
Physical Chemistry Division Seminar Coordinator, Fall 2009, 2007,2006,2005.
Links
UF Chemistry Department
Center for Condensed Matter Sciences
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Software utilities for use in Windows (xp, vista, 7) or Linux.
These uility programs are provided free of charge, but come with absolutely no warranty.
Unfortunately, the way Bruker's xwinnmr program stores 1D specta and fids is extremely inconvenient if you are interested in importing a large number of 1D spectra into other programs, such as DFP, Mathematica, Excel or Igor. The utilities bruk2dfp.exe and ifid.exe provide a solution to this quandry.
bruk2dfp.exe is a Windows console application for batch conversion of Bruker Xwinnmr 1r binary spectrum files (SGI Irix, little endian to big endian conversion) to any one of four user specified output formats : Igor Pro text files, DFP input files, 2-column text files, or Mathematica lists (suitable for use with ListPlot3D). Here is the source code: bruk2dfp.c. Please email russ@ufl.edu if you find bugs.
For use in Windows 7, installation of cygwin is recommended. Run bruk2dfp as a command line program in a bash shell. The bash shell will give you access to other unix utilities, such as "find".
Some crude applciation notes are given in the readme file.
Bruk2dfp reads a list of bruker "1r" files to be converted. The list can be created using the unix "find command". For example, if my experiment directory is named wag21d-rt, I would want to gather all the "1r" spectrum filenames (with complete path specification) and put them into a text file named list.txt within the wag21d-rt directory. This is done as follows:
find wag21d-rt -name "1r" > wag21d-rt/list.txt
ifid.exe is for bulk conversion of Bruker fids into ascii text files. Here is the source code: ifid.c. This program reads a list of bruker "fid" files to be converted. The list can be created using the unix "find command". For example,
find wag21d-rt -name "fid" > wag21d-rt/list.txt
would create a file named "list.txt" containing a list of "fid" files in the target directory, e.g. wag21d-rt. If necessary, the program converts from little endian to big endian format after reading the binary "fid" file suitable for intel x86 processors. The program reads the acqus files to obtain the dwell time. ifid.exe should be executed in the same folder as the list.txt file (without any command line argument), or alternatively, folder containing the "list.txt" can be specified as a command line argument.
mathnmrv6.nb is a Mathematica notebook file containing a collection of modules for NMR signal processing. The routines were specifically designed for interpolation, left shifting, phasing, and fourier transformation of Bruker fids. An example of data processing (deuterium quadrupole echo signals) is given here.
dfp2igor (source code: dfp2igor.c) is a utility program for converting the DFP output files into stacked spectra in Igor Pro text files. This program is useful If you are manually processing DFP output spectra with Igor Pro.
Copyright © 2007-2010 by C.R. Bowers . All rights reserved.