This project upgrades the data acquisition, control, and processing hardware and software on three nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers acquired in 1979, 1987, and 1989. The old computer hardware cannot be modified or updated. The software is not supported by the spectrometer vendors; it is outdated, slow, inflexible, and difficult for undergraduates to use. Off-line data processing is either not possible or extremely expensive with the old systems. The number of students who can be instructed simultaneously on the operation of the spectrometers is limited to the number who can crowd around the console. The objective of this project is to acquire new hardware and software that replaces the old operating systems of these spectrometers. This allows off-line processing and remote operation of the spectrometers which, coupled with data projection equipment, allows the teaching of spectrometer control, operation, and data reduction in a lecture setting. Off-line data processing greatly increases the number of spectra that can be run on a given day. There is a great demand for NMR spectra in organic chemistry, instrumental analysis, NMR, protein chemistry, and two inorganic courses. In addition, three faculty make extensive use of NMR in their research on biodegradable polymers, organometallic compounds, and studies on myoglobin mutants and complexes. New microscale problem-based undergraduate NMR experiments, combined with molecular modeling, are constantly being developed for the organic chemistry course. Faculty can disseminate the results of this project, especially new experiments, through homepages on the Internet, lectures, seminars, published research papers, and poster presentations at professional meetings, as well as through a widely used organic chemistry laboratory textbook.
