Laboratory for Advanced Spin Engineering – Magnetic Resonance (LASE-MR)

• Subject Area: Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 537627671

In the LASE building (Laboratory for Advanced Spin Engineering, opened in 2022) the research of the RPTU on the topic of spin is bundled, from the fundamentals, spin materials and spin functionalisation, to applications of spin. Scientists from physics, chemistry and engineering work together on an interdisciplinary basis. One of the four large laboratories in LASE is the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory (LASE-MR), which should now be expanded into a core facility. The focus of the work in LASE-MR is on technical applications of magnetic resonance. At LASE-MR, four working groups, two from engineering and two from chemistry, work closely together to answer chemical and process engineering questions on the optimization of reactions and processes. LASE-MR has 400 m2 of laboratory space with a unique laboratory infrastructure (walk-in fume hoods in close proximity to the NMR spectrometers, a large wet chemistry area, a hyperpolarization laboratory, an ESR laboratory and a GC laboratory) and an extensive range of NMR instruments (high-field NMR instruments in various configurations, including widebore MR imaging and solid-state NMR, benchtop NMR instruments). The aim of the work in LASE-MR is to use novel magnetic resonance technologies to answer chemical and process engineering questions on reaction and process optimization. Among other things, a detailed understanding of the coupling between mass transport and reaction in technical systems is to be obtained. This knowledge can be used to optimize catalysts, reactor geometries or process control in terms of conversion and product selectivity. Important fields of application for this are, for example, the degradation and recycling of polymers and the use of renewable carbon sources. LASE-MR is uniquely positioned to achieve these goals, with engineers and chemists working interactively in the same laboratory.

• DFG Programme: Core Facilities
• Applicant Institution: Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau
• Leader: Dr. Kerstin Münnemann