Developing homogeneous non-noble metal based p-H2 induced polarization transfer catalysts for NMR signal enhancement

The project proposal describes the development of non-precious metal based hydride catalysts that are capable of reversibly binding and activating para-hydrogen gas. These catalysts can then be used in NMR spectroscopy to enhance the signal of a substrate of interest and can therefore make it possible to detect analytes even at nanomolar concentration, which under standard conditions is not feasible by NMR. At this stage the NMR signal enhancement catalysts are mainly based on precious metals, which makes designing cheaper analogues from abundant minerals an interesting scientific problem. Considering my background in organometallic and nanochemistry, I would like to bring this know-how to KBFI and Estonian chemistry community. As hyperpolarization studies have already been carried out at KBFI, I feel this potential symbiotic environment could accelerate my reserach on base-metal hydride catalysts in catalytic para-hydrogen induced polarization transfer processes.