The purpose of this project is to provide undergraduate students With opportunities to work with a major and increasingly important scientific instrument and to explore the methods of investigation and analysis that this instrument can support. The instrument that will be purchased is a Bruker High Resolution Fourier transform 1H/13C & nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer system. This instrument will be used to create contemporary examples of proton and carbon NMR spectra for use in the classroom teaching of organic chemistry, to analyze intermediates, products and unknowns in the undergraduate instructional organic laboratory, to present contemporary methods for the determination of molecular structure in the advanced organic chemistry course, to investigate enzyme-catalyzed reaction in biochemistry, and to provide opportunities for sophisticated experiments in the areas of structure determination, reaction mechanisms and kinetics for group projects and in student/faculty research. The project includes plans to make data, spectra, and other materials obtained with this instrument available to others who do not have access to this type of equipment.
