Integration of NMR Spectroscopy into the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum

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Chemistry (12)Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has attained a preeminent position as a tool for use in chemistry and related fields, such as biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmaceutics, and medicinal chemistry. The closely related discipline of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) extends the reach of this technology into such fields as clinical medicine and material science. Thus, it is important that undergraduate students entering any of these fields be given a clear understanding of the principles basic to NMR. It is doubly important that students who go on to teach physical science at the secondary or post-secondary level should have a firm grounding in this technology. However, meeting this need for a class of several hundred sophomore organic chemistry students is a daunting task, Nevertheless, our Chemistry Department is supporting an initiative to expose all students taking chemistry to sophisticated equipment of the types they are likely to encounter in their future careers. An NMR spectrometer consisting of an existing 9.4 Tesla magnet, a new 400 MHz console, sample handling robot, pulsed-field-gradient system, pulsed-field-gradient probe, and shim system is serving as the basis for this initiative. The host workstation of this spectrometer is connected to the LAN via ethernet. Given this level of automation, a throughput of hundreds of samples per week is entirely realistic. The step that is not being rushed is the interaction of the student with the data. Each student spends as much time as desired processing, examining, and incorporating the data into laboratory reports. Appropriate NMR experiments are being modified from those available in the literature and are being integrated into the large sophomore organic chemistry course, further extending the model at Florida State University for using an NMR in large classes. In addition, the NMR is being used in the qualitative organic chemistry, advanced analytical chemistry, advanced physical chemistry, and biochemistry courses, and by students involved in undergraduate research.