The Department of Chemistry is purchasing a 200 MHz FT-NMR spectrometer with a 1H/ 13C probe, variable temperature capabilities, and a sample changer. The use of nmr is being incorporated into all four years of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum beginning with the freshmen honors course and culminating with two new senior-level courses. One of these courses involves inorganic and organic approaches to synthesis. Student projects include following the evolution of the active site of a metal-catalyzed cycloaddition reaction, thus familiarizing students with the process of synthesis- characterization-design/redesign cycle important to solving problems in chemical synthesis. The second new senior-level course emphasizes the principles of fourier transform NMR spectroscopy and more advanced laboratory applications of NMR including, command mode of operation, spectral optimization, DEPT, selective homonuclear decoupling, solvent suppression, multiple quantum filtered COSY and other advanced two- dimensional experiments. The sample changer allows students enrolled in the introductory organic chemistry laboratory to obtain routine NMR spectra of their reaction products.
