Structuring made easy

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is a widely used technique to study the structure of materials ranging from proteins to catalysts. These machines have become an essential part of any laboratory. But now, the next-generation machines are all set to change this approach. These will use extremely powerful magnets and cost about US $7-10 million. They will use superconducting magnets to deliver an extremely high magnetic field. This will translate into unprecedented precision in resolving the structure of the materials being studied. Scientist hope to be able to analyse the human DNA complex using such machines in the near future.