The chemistry department is purchasing a TECMAG Mercury-S12/LoEC computer upgrade for the Varian CFT-20 Fourier-transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system currently used for undergraduate instruction. This equipment replaces the current Varian 620 minicomputer with a Macintosh 7100/80 computer and specially designed spectral acquisition boards, interfaces, Deskwriter 660 printer, and MacNMR software. This upgrade to an industry standard 32-bit computer with a wide selection of low-cost I/O devices, enables students to obtain one-dimensional or two-dimensional carbon and proton NMR spectra with a minimum of supervision. The current instrument, a gift from PPG Industries, has reliable electromagnet and solid-state instrument control circuitry but suffers from problems with the embedded minicomputer, oscilloscope visual interface, and cumbersome NMR spectral acquisition software that is difficult to program and is contained on cassettes and 8-inch floppy disks. This upgrade extends the life of the current instrument, improves the user interface, expands its use for both routine and advanced spectral acquisition, and serves as an upgrade model for other colleges in the Appalachian College Association with similar, failing electromagnet NMR spectrometers.
