With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation program (MRI), the Department of Chemistry at Hobart and William Smith Colleges will acquire a 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. The NMR spectrometer will be utilized to elucidate the structure of molecules during organic synthesis including the synthesis of 1) potential anticancer chemotherapeutics and other peptidic bioconjugates, 2) novel organometallic molecular wire candidates for nanoscale devices and 3) biologically active nitrogen heterocycles.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, to characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The requested NMR spectrometer will be used to characterize products, identify unknown materials, and determine the three-dimensional geometry of complex structures
