Chemistry (12) The attraction for many undergraduate students to science is the experimental nature of it; they learn by doing. In chemistry and related fields, NMR spectroscopy is arguably one of the most well-developed and broadly applicable experimental techniques for structure determination and dynamic measurements. In recent years, NMR spectroscopy has had an enormous impact on chemistry education as high field spectrometers become more available to undergraduate institutions through NSF support. In order to strengthen the overall chemistry curriculum, attract and retain more science students, and better prepare those students for graduate work and employment in the sciences, DePaul University is incorporating hands-on high field FT-NMR spectroscopy throughout its four-year program. This project is modeled after similar NSF-funded programs that have been extremely effective elsewhere at exploiting the full power of NMR spectroscopy as a teaching tool (Davis-UE9751056, Ball-DUE9950413, Liotta-DUE0126678). Students at all levels of the curriculum experience NMR spectroscopy first-hand, through experiments that have been adapted from the literature (primarily from J. Chem. Ed.) or developed at DePaul. In general chemistry, students use proton-decoupled carbon NMR to determine the structure of simple isomeric hydrocarbons and observe the effect of electronegative atoms on chemical shift. In organic chemistry, proton NMR and multidimensional techniques are used to determine the structure of unknowns, and reaction products, especially novel monomers and copolymers. Research students and upper level students in physical chemistry, instrumental analysis, intermediate inorganic, and biochemistry use NMR spectroscopy for both structure determination (of dihydride and dihydrogen organometallic complexes) and to evaluate dynamic processes (equilibrium, keto-enol tautomerism, hydrogen bonding, yeast metabolism). Through progressively more sophisticated experiments, students learn to appreciate the full power of NMR spectroscopy while also developing their problem solving and critical thinking skills, and enhancing their overall understanding of chemistry and the relatedness of each subdiscipline.
