MRI: Track 3 Development of Helium Recovery Systems and Instrumentation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

This award is jointly supported by the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, the Division of Chemistry Research Instrumentation program, and the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Office of Strategic Initiatives in response to the solicitation of proposals that promote the recovery, recycling, and/or reuse of helium initiated by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, led by Professors Jeffrey Filippini and Liviu Mirica and Dr.

Dean Olson, is developing upgrades to the Central Helium Liquefier and Recovery Facility (CHLRF) which supports research in the areas of chemistry and biochemical sciences, notably through a shared-use Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy facility, materials science and engineering, physics and quantum information sciences, astronomy, and nuclear physics. Established in 1958, the CHLRF ensures a stable and cost-effective supply of liquid helium to researchers across campus.

This development project upgrades the CHLRF on several fronts to improve operational efficiency and system longevity, and to expand the system’s capacity for storage of liquid and recovered gas. The CHLRF distributes between 16,000 – 28,000 L of liquid helium annually serving more than 500 individual researchers spanning several dozen research groups, as well as supporting the development of the future scientific work force through advanced coursework and the training of research students.

This project supports the development and improvement of helium liquification equipment necessary for significantly increasing the campus-wide helium recovery efficiency of the CHLRF from the current ~74% to a target of 85-90%. This award strengthens the research infrastructure of the university and region, to benefit a wide range of multidisciplinary research.

Some of the research projects supported by this project include (1) developing inorganic nanomaterials for biological and energy-related applications, and understanding the chemical interactions of these nanomaterials with their surroundings; (2) developing spectroscopically-guided synthetic approaches to installing well-defined, molecular active sites in porous materials; (3) developing a new atomic-resolution, time-reversal-invariant spin-polarized probe that can be used in a host of quantum applications, including the detection and characterization of Majorana fermions; (4) developing a novel experiment to measure the mass of the electron neutrino using a precision measurement of cyclotron radiation; (5) developing balloon-borne, helium-cooled telescopes to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background and the history of cosmic star formation; and (6) characterizing the structural and electronic properties of aluminum oxide-based Josephson junctions at cryogenic temperatures incorporated into resonators and qubits. This project also supports the training of undergraduate students on the maintenance of helium recovery equipment, and of interns through a partnership with a local community college.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.