Exploring the Potential of Broadband Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Micro-Coil Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Environmental Research.

With sensitivity being the Achilles' heel of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the superior mass sensitivity offered by micro-coils can be an excellent choice for tiny, mass limited samples such as eggs and small organisms. Recently, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based micro-coil transceivers have been reported and demonstrate excellent mass sensitivity. However, the ability of broadband CMOS micro-coils to study heteronuclei has yet to be investigated, and here their potential is explored within the lens of environmental research. Eleven nuclei including Li, F, P and, Tl were studied and detection limits in the low to mid picomole range were found for an extended experiment. Further, two environmentally relevant samples (a sprouting broccoli seed and a egg) were successfully studied using the CMOS micro-coil system. C NMR was used to help resolve broad signals in the H spectrum of the C enriched broccoli seed, and steady state free precession was used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of six. F NMR was used to track fluorinated contaminants in a single egg, showing potential for studying egg-pollutant interactions. Overall, CMOS micro-coil NMR demonstrates significant promise in environmental research, especially when the future potential to scale to multiple coil arrays (greatly improving throughput) is considered.