We play the magic of magnetism

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a powerful analytical and characterization technique that has been widely used in chemistry, materials science, biochemistry and medical diagnosis. The uniqueness of NMR stems from its high chemical resolution, its non-invasive nature, and the capability to offer a full range of structural and molecular information.

Solid-state NMR is at the spearhead of NMR technique that aims at resolving structures and dynamics in solids (also capable of studying liquids, gases and mixed phases). Solid-state NMR is able to capture the anisotropy of local chemical environment as well as dynamics of different states. It advances our knowledge through techniques such as multi-dimensional spectroscopy, relaxometry, imaging etc.

Solid-state NMR lab @ ZJU is equiped with one 14.1 Tesla and one 9.4 Tesla Bruker solid-state NMR instruments along with a set of special probes. The primary interest of the group includes the development of NMR techniques (e.g. advanced pulse sequences, in-situ techniques, low-field NMR) and materials sciences (e.g. porous materials, light-emitting quantum dots, photocatalysis, drug delivery etc.).

We spin the world of chemistry

We develop advanced NMR methodologies and apply them to study functional materials for clean energy and biomedical applications. We are particularly interested in the surface chemistry and fundamental mechanisms. We use the comprehensive knowledge obtained from NMR to improve the engineering of new materials. In addition, we engage in other intriguing projects in interdisciplinary areas - project X.

Meet the team

Xueqian Kong 孔学谦 Team Leader

Principal Investigator

Professor

Department of Chemistry

Zhejiang University

 

Education & Work Experience
2013-2014: Senior Engineer

Western Digital Corporation
2010-2013: Postdoctoral Fellow,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2007-2010: Ph.D. Iowa State University,
2005-2006: M.A. Clark University,
2001-2005: B.S. University of Science and Technology of China

 

kxq(at)zju.edu.cn

Team Members
Lina Gao 高李娜 Postdoctoral Fellow
Zhenfeng Pang 庞振峰 Postdocotral Fellow
Weicheng Cao 曹伟成 PhD candidate
Jinglin Yin 尹竟琳 PhD candidate
Yu Yin 尹昱 PhD candidate
Xiaoqi Zhou 周小琪 PhD candidate
Tian He 何天 PhD candidate
Qinlong Chen 陈琴龙 Master student
Yiran Wang 王奕然 Master student
Yifan Song 宋逸凡 Master student
Zhenmin Cao 曹振明 Postdoctoral Fellow
Alumni
Ming Xia 夏鸣

Bruker China

Yebin Guan 官叶斌

安庆师范大学

Jingtao Zhang 张靖涛

Ohio State University

Xiaohe Lei 雷逍鹤

Univ. California Santa Barbara

Haoran Jing 景昦然

Univ. Illinois Chicago

Alessandro Marchetti Alex

Italy

Juner Chen 陈君儿

西湖大学

Tongyao Wang 王曈尧

大连化物所

Jun Zhang 张俊

温州生物材料所

Jingsong Cai 蔡景松

start-up

Pingmei Zeng 曾萍梅

industry

Bowen Yu 虞博文

industry

Tingyu Liu 刘庭玉

恒大新能源

Yao Fu 付尧

French National Institute for Nuclear Science

Hanxi Guan 管晗曦

浙江大学衢州研究院

Moments of Fun

2016.3.22 Picture of the NMR Lab
2015.9.28 玉泉-之江 中秋毅行
2017.11.19 安吉 大竹海
2018.6.11 Group Selfie

the capabilities of our nmr lab

 

Multi-dimensional

NMR Spectroscopy

In-situ & Operando

NMR

Biological

NMR Imaging

Portable

NMR

some nerdy facts

Strength

We have two superconducting magnets at the field strength of 9.4 and 14.1 Tesla. (> 100,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field. ~ 10 times stronger than typical medical MRI) We also have one permanent magnet at the field strength of ~ 1.5 Tesla. Each magnet is dedicated to different missions.

Speed

Solid-state NMR mechanically spins the sample container (i.e. rotor) to achieve high resolution (called magic angle-spinning). The 1.3 mm-diamter rotors in our lab can spin up to ~ 70 kilo Hz (~600 times faster than the spinning disks in your computer hard disk drive). It is particularly useful for resolving 1H or 19F signals in polymers.

Temperature

Solid-state NMR can run measurements at variable temperatures. In our lab, the temperature in samples under magic angle spinning can reach as high as 700 celcius with laser-assisted heating. We are one of the very few labs in the world who own such advanced equipment.

Versatility

Due to its non-invasive nature, NMR is an excellent tool to study real-time chemical processes. We have specially-designed flow MAS probes that can do in-situ and operando experiments. As such, we can push the level of materials research from the ex-situ characterization of structures to the real-time understanding of the whole chemical processes.

Visibility

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most powerful diagnostic tool in hospitals. With the micro-imaging probe in our strong magnets, we can look inside living things with micro-meter resolution. Such cutting-edge imaging techniques will be particularly useful in biological or chemical engineering research.

Scalability

Most NMR instruments weight multiple tons and need a whole room for maintainance. We anticipate that compact/portable NMR, roughly the size of a desktop computer, will replace traditional NMR in most organic labs. It is part of our mission to advance the techniques of compact NMR to make it more powerful.

Selected Publications

  • "Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Identifies Abnormal Calcium Phosphate Formation in Diseased Bones"

    ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2021

    Pingmei Zeng†, Yao Fu†, Yichuan Pang†, Tian He, Yuanyuan Wu, Ruikang Tang, An Qin*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Water molecules bonded to the carboxylate groups at the inorganic-organic interface of an inorganic nanocrystal coated with alkanoate ligands"

    National Science Review, 2021

    Jiongzhao Li†, Weicheng Cao†, Yufei Shu†, Haibing Zhang, Xudong Qian, Xueqian Kong*, Linjun Wang*, Xiaogang Peng*

  • "Tuning the Solution Structure of Electrolyte for Optimal Solid-electrolyte-interphase Formation in High-voltage Lithium Metal Batteries"

    Journal of Energy Chemistry, 2021

    Juner Chen,Tingyu Liu,Lina Gao, Yumin Qian*,Yaqin Liu,Xueqian Kong*

  • "Solid-state NMR in the field of drug delivery: State of the art and new perspectives"

    Magnetic Resonance Letters, 2021

    Alessandro Marchetti†, Jinglin Yin†, Yongchao Su*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Defect‐assisted Loading and Docking Conformations of Pharmaceuticals in Metal‐Organic Frameworks"

    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2021

    Yao Fu, Zhengzhong Kang*, Weicheng Cao, Jinglin Yin, Yaoquan Tu, Jianhua Li, Hanxi Guan, Yiran Wang, Qi Wang*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Probing Molecular Motions in Metal-organic Frameworks with Solid-state NMR"

    Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 2020

    Yao Fu, Hanxi Guan, Jinglin Yin, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Probing Nonuniform Adsorption in Multicomponent Metal–Organic Frameworks via Segmental Dynamics by Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance"

    The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2020

    Hanxi Guan†, Jiachen Li†, Tianyou Zhou, Zhenfeng Pang, Yao Fu, Joel Cornelio, Qi Wang*, Shane G. Telfer* Xueqian Kong*

  • "Revealing the Structural Reversibility of High-Performance Surface-Enhanced NVOPF Cathode Materials for Sodium Ion Batteries"

    The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2020

    Tingyu Liu, Lina Gao, Juner Chen, Qinlong Chen, Haiwei Lei, Linjun Wang, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Metal–Organic Framework Nanoparticles for Ameliorating Breast Cancer-Associated Osteolysis"

    Nano Letters, 2020

    Yichuan Pang†, Yao Fu†, Chen Li, Zuoxing Wu, Weicheng Cao, Xi Hu, Xiaochen Sun, Wenxin He, Xiankun Cao, Daishun Ling, Qian Li, Chunhai Fan, Chi Yang*, Xueqian Kong*, and An Qin*

  • "In situ solid‐state NMR characterization of pharmaceutical materials: An example of drug‐polymer thermal mixing"

    Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2020

    Jinglin Yin, Chengbin Huang, Hanxi Guan, Zhenfeng Pang, Xi Hu, Yongchao Su*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Identification of Facet-Dependent Coordination Structures of Carboxylate Ligands on CdSe Nanocrystals"

    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019

    Jun Zhang†, Haibin Zhang†, Weicheng Cao†, Zhenfeng Pang, Jiongzhao Li, Yufei Shu, Chenqi Zhu, Xueqian Kong*, Linjun Wang*, Xiaogang Peng*

  • "Partitioning surface ligands on nanocrystals for maximal solubility"

    Nature Communications, 2019

    Zhenfeng Pang†, Jun Zhang†, Weicheng Cao, Xueqian Kong* Xiaogang Peng*

  • "Molecular Mechanisms of CO2 Adsorption in Diamine-Cross-Linked Graphene Oxide"

    Chemistry of Materials, 2019

    Jingsong Cai†, Juner Chen†, Pingmei Zeng, Zhenfeng Pang, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Duet of Acetate and Water at the Defects of Metal–Organic Frameworks"

    Nano Letters, 2019

    Yao Fu†, Zhengzhong Kang†, Jinglin Yin, Weicheng Cao, Yaoquan Tu, Qi Wang*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "Ionic Liquid Selectively Facilitates CO2 Transport through Graphene Oxide Membrane"

    ACS Nano, 2018

    Wen Ying†, Jingsong Cai†, Ke Zhou†, Danke Chen, Yulong Ying, Yi Guo, Xueqian Kong*, Zhiping Xu*, Xinsheng Peng*

  • "Revealing the chemistry of an anode-passivating electrolyte salt for high rate and stable sodium metal batteries"

    Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2018

    Lina Gao†, Juner Chen†*, Yaqin Liu, Yusuke Yamauchi, Zhenguo Huang*, Xueqian Kong*

  • "A pillar[5]arene-based 3D network polymer for rapid removal of organic micropollutants from water"

    Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2017

    Bingbing Shi†, Hanxi Guan†, Liqing Shangguan, Hu Wang, Danyu Xia, Xueqian Kong*, Feihe Huang*

  • "Organelle-Specific Triggered Release of Immunostimulatory Oligonucleotides from Intrinsically Coordinated DNA−Metal−Organic Frameworks with Soluble Exoskeleton"

    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2017

    Zejun Wang†, Yao Fu†, Zhengzhong Kang†, Xiaoguo Liu†, Nan Chen*, Qi Wang, Yaoquan Tu, Lihua Wang, Shiping Song, Daishun Ling, Haiyun Song, Xueqian Kong*, and Chunhai Fan*

  • "Understanding Surface and Interfacial Chemistry in Functional Nanomaterials via Solid-State NMR"

    Advanced Materials, 2017

    Alessandro Marchetti, Juner Chen, Zhenfeng Pang, Shenhui Li, Daishun Ling, Feng Deng,* and Xueqian Kong*

  • Department of Chemistry
    Zhejiang University
    Hangzhou, China
    浙江大学 化学系
    玉泉校区 教八 127实验室
    Email: kxq (at) zju.edu.cn