Improvement of Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum Through Updated NMR Capabilities

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Through this project, the Chemistry Department is upgrading a 21- year-old 30-Mhz NMR spectrometer, which had been inoperable, with state-of-the-art 200-MHz FT-NMR capabilities. This new instrument provides the ability to perform significant undergraduate research projects, while being simple enough to allow upper-division (e.g., sophomore-level and up) students to record their own spectra routinely for instructional laboratories. The exposure of students to this instrument begins in Organic Chemistry, the normal sophomore-level course, where they record the spectra for the products synthesized during the first-semester lab course. During the second-semester lab, open-ended project-based experiments are performed. Without a functional NMR spectrometer, the incorporation of this type of experiment is extremely difficult. The upper-division courses all, with the current exception of Physical Chemistry, incorporate advanced NMR techniques in their laboratory offerings. The most notable is the ability to offer a meaningful lab component to a newly introduced Spectroscopy class. Undergraduate research is enjoying an immediate elevation in opportunities with the presence of an FT NMR spectrometer. Two of the faculty on staff are increasing their activity in research as a result of increased demand. Their projects require NMR capabilities, ranging from routine 1H to 31P. The spectrometer meets both the current requirements, as well as the foreseeable future needs.