Policies, Rules and Safety

NMR Facility Policies and Safety Rules

All users who have or intend to have access to the NMR Facility must read and follow these policies and rules set forth to guard against accidents, personal injury, and damage to instruments and environments. All new users and lab supervisors must sign the Safety and Policy Acknowledgement Form before a new user can be trained by the Facility personnel and permission to use the Facility is granted. Failure to follow these policies and rules may lead to suspension of the access privilege to the entire facility among other possible penalties.

The NMR Facility promotes diversity and inclusion among its user population. See our mission statement on diversity here.

General Policies and Rules

No unauthorized individuals or pets are allowed in the NMR Facility rooms.
Guests must be escorted at all times.
No food or drinks should be brought to the NMR rooms.
Lab coats, pipettes, and surgical gloves should not be used in the NMR room except for cleaning purposes and when the manager is notified of the needs for these items.
No sharing of user account unless authorized by the Facility manager.
Financial responsibility is implicit in using the NMR Facility for scientific research or commercial material characterization unless explicitly waived by the Department or the Facility Manager under special circumstances.
All on-campus users pay towards the upkeeping of the instruments through the use of their Chem project codes at the campus rates.
All off-campus users are charged through other payable accounts at the off-campus rates for both instrument usage time and staff assistance charges if applicable.
All users, including all off-campus parties, also bear financial responsibilities for (1) the cost to repair any damages to the instruments due to unauthorized use or failure to follow the policies and safety guidelines listed here, and (2) lost recharge fee and personnel cost associated with instrument down time due to such damages.
All off-campus users also bear full financial responsibility for the cost associated with probe cleanup and repair caused by probe contamination following tube breaking accidents resulting from improper user operation.
Only routine NMR experiments may be performed.
Users must receive permission and instruction before attempting any new or specialized techniques. The NMR Facility manager must be informed before any non-standard equipment or experimental setup is used. Users may not work alone when setting-up or performing nonstandard experiments.
Probe protection when decoupling or saturation is used
Do not use higher decoupling power, longer acquisition time with decoupling, especially in combination with a short recycle delay, than those recommended in the experiment protocol. Do not use more than recommended power and duration for resonance saturation in experiments such as CYCLENOE or HOMODEC. Always talk to the manager first before attempting risky setup.
Variable Temperature (VT) experiments
All users who intend to run VT experiments on NMR500 must read and follow the VT instruction carefully. It is required that you talk to the facility manager for training the first time you conduct an VT experiment. Unless you are given explict permission to conduct low below room temperature experiments, you must talk to the manager for assistance.
If the desired VT range exceeds -70C to 90C, you are required to talk to the Facility manager for proper setup.
Solvent boiling and freezing points must be closely observed. Use a proper solvent for the targeted temperature range, with sufficient overhead room for extra precaution. Failure to do so may lead to sample freezing or boiling which may break the sample tube inside the probe, causing damage to the probe and contamination.
No probe change without first notifying the facility manager.
Only Facility personnel and trained and authorized users can perform probe change.
Instrument time reservation
Each instrument may have specific hardware and software setup and configuration. Only users trained and authorized for a particular instrument can reserve and use the instrument.
Instrument time reservation is on a first-come first-serve basis and is limited by maximum block time for each machine.
Only reserve what you need. Abuse of machine time reservation, repeated absence during reserved time, or repeated overbooking will be investigated and appropriate financial charge may be made to recover the loss of the recharge fee due to the abuse.
Promptly cancel unused portion of the machine time.
Sample tube handling and breaking accidents
All users are required to use properly rated (minimally 500 MHz rated) and good quality NMR tubes. Sample tubes that do not meet the straightness requirement may scratch the probe or shatter inside the probe while spinning causing probe contamination and damage.
NMR tubes must be cleaned with kimwipes (with small amount of isopropanol if necessary) from dust and fingerprints before being inserted into the magnet.
Only isopropanol (provided next to each NMR workstation) should be used for cleaning the spinner and sample tubes.
All users are responsible for safe handling of NMR tubes in and out of the magnet. Improper tube handling when removing and inserting a sample tube in a spinner is the number one cause in tube breaking accidents at the Facility.
Time is essential for probe cleanup after a sample spill. The user should report the accident to the Facility Manager immediately using the emergency phone number posted on the side of the magnet if a sample tube breaks inside the probe or upper barrel. Importantly, follow the posted procedure to post a clearly written message to prevent other users from continuing to use the machine which may lead to more serious damage. Failure to report or notify other users of a tube breaking accident may lead to the loss of access rights to the Facility (see details under Accident reporting below).

Safety and Accidents

Danger of magnet quench and risk of asphyxiation
Note the locations of the exit doors and leave the room immediately if signs of magnet quench are observed. In the unlikely event of magnet quench, the magnet loses superconductivity and overheats, causing a large volume of helium and nitrogen gas to be released instantly from inside the magnet dewar. The safety relief valves at the top and possibly the bottom of the magnet will be popped open. Oxygen will be pushed out of the confined space in seconds.
Strong magnetic fields and safety
DO NOT bring metallic objects, large or small, credit cards, ID cards with magnetic strips, and watches close to the magnet within the 5 Gauss line, typically 2-3 meters from center of the magnet for unshielded magnets and 1 meter from center for actively shielded magnet. Whenever in doubt, assume the magnet is not shielded. All magnets, except the newer 600 and 800 MHz spectrometers in the department, are not shielded.
Do not enter the Facility rooms or operate the NMR spectrometers if you wear life-supporting medical devices and implants, such as heart pacemakers. High-magnetic fields may also subject certain prostheses with magnetic materials to strong magnetic fields. Use extreme care and seek advice before approaching the spectrometers.
Hazardous and dangerous materials
The NMR Facility is a shared, user facility. All users who conduct experiments with hazardous materials, including toxic and radioactive materials, must closely follow EH&S safety and waste disposal guidelines and regulations. The user and the associated group are responsible for properly monitoring the safe handling, exposure and disposal of the hazardous material according to EH&S guidelines. Failure to do so may jeopardize the environment and safety of all users and may lead to suspension of facility access privilege and payment of any cleanup cost and fine.
Highly toxic, radioactive, and dangerous materials including pressurized, chemically corrosive, explosive, or otherwise unusually hazardous materials may not be brought into the laboratory without prior discussion of handling, disposal, and emergency procedures with the NMR Facility Manager.
The user is responsible for ensuring the safety of NMR samples to instruments and safety of surrounding environments and personnel. Whenever in doubt, notify the facility manager of the use of such materials so that proper precaution can be taken.
Sample tubes of regular thickness or thicker (not tubes labeled as thin-walled) or double-walled tubes are strongly recommended for dangerous materials. The user and associated group must guarantee the proper and safe operation of the sample tubes and experiment conditions to avoid any tube breaking accident.
Accident reporting
The NMR facility strives to keep a safe and smooth working environment. Your cooperation is essential to this goal. Our goal is to promote shared responsibility and good-faith efforts for all users to immediately report any accident that may or have led to danger to personnel, probe or other hardware damage. The priority and policy of the facility is to minimize any possible further damage that may occur after the accident, repair the damage as soon as possible, and prevent future accidents from happening. Failure to report after a serious accident may lead to suspension of the access privilege to the entire facility among other possible penalties.
The user must post a clearly written message in front of the workstation, by the door or wherever most appropriate to inform other users of the situation if the accident has led to possible instrument failure, damage, or a dangerous situation for others to be present.
All users should report any accident that poses an immediate danger to the environment, personnel or properties including spilling of highly toxic, dangerous or radioactive materials inside the Facility to the relevant campus emergency response in addition to the Facility Manager.

H. Zhou updated 03/2021