Upgrading of Department of Chemistry's FT-NMR Capabilities

Coastal Carolina University, Conway SC

Investigators

Abstract

Chemistry (12) This award is allowing the Department of Chemistry to provide a state-of-the-art educational experience to our undergraduate students by access to a high-field FT NMR. A variety of experiments are being adapted from the research and educational literature and implemented into most courses in the chemistry curriculum. Thus, undergraduate students in many majors, including nonscience ones, are being impacted by the incorporation of the NMR into the curriculum. General Chemistry students are using the NMR in conjunction with IR spectroscopy and molecular modeling to study the implications of Lewis resonance structures to chemical bonding. The Organic Chemistry students are using the NMR, including two-dimensional spectra, to characterize products from several synthetic procedures. Students in Quantitative Analysis are determining the equilibrium concentrations of species present in polyprotic acid solutions as a function of pH. Multinuclear capabilities (11B and 31P) of the instrument, paramagnetic measurements, dipolar shifts, and line broadening are being explored in the Inorganic Chemistry laboratory, additional two-dimensional spectra are being investigated in the Instrumental Analysis laboratory, and relaxation times and isotopic exchange rates are being measured in the Physical Chemistry laboratory. Many students in the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry laboratories are Biology and/or Marine Science majors so the impact of this instrument is strong on other science majors.