Equipment: Helium Recovery Equipment: Efficient Recycling and Reuse of Liquid Helium in the Mississippi State University NMR Facility

With support from the Division of Chemistry (CHE), and co-funding from the Division of Molecular & Cellular Biosciences (MCB) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, Mississippi State University (MSU) will acquire and install a helium recovery system to support the MSU NMR Facility. Helium is a non-renewable resource, and the scientific instrumentation that relies on liquid helium (LHe) is linked to the status of the global helium supply.

As a result of helium shortages, critical scientific infrastructure is in jeopardy, which puts the US researchers who rely on that infrastructure at risk of losing their competitiveness. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers require a constant supply of helium because of the superconducting coils that generate the high magnetic fields needed for those instruments.

This makes NMR facilities acutely susceptible to fluctuations in the helium market. With a helium recovery system, the MSU NMR Facility will recycle nearly all of the helium it uses, assuring its continued viability and allowing it to serve new users by maintaining low user fees. The team is also developing a teaching unit on helium recycling and scarcity for MSU’s popular Environmental Chemistry class.

Information on the installation process will be disseminated via the NMR facility’s website and YouTube channel. This will support the installation of helium recovery systems in other small NMR facilities like that at MSU.

The proposed helium recovery equipment will support NMR equipment serving numerous chemistry and biology research projects throughout the region. Examples include synthesis of organometallic and inorganic chemicals used in novel catalysts, C-H activation, CO2 reduction, photocatalysis, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The facility will also support research on biomolecular function, multifunctional materials, and novel polymers.

NMR is a critical enabling technology to understand reaction mechanisms and molecular structure, and researchers throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana will benefit from this equipment and the stability it will provide in facilitating the maintenance of a steady He supply in support of the regionally important NMR facility at Mississippi State University.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.