NMR Teaching Guide

Improving chemistry teaching with benchtop NMR

Teaching of basic NMR theory is part of the chemistry undergraduate curriculum throughout the world and analysis of NMR data is a fundamental part of most undergraduate chemistry courses. Despite this and in contrast to many other spectroscopic methods, undergraduate students are rarely given the opportunity to operate a spectrometer due to the complexity and cost of the instrumentation. With the advent of the benchtop NMR spectrometer, this has changed. X-Pulse is an affordable, benchtop, cryogen-free NMR spectrometer that offers performance without expensive liquid helium making it suitable for virtually any chemistry laboratory and ideal for teaching NMR to undergraduates.

"Great system – very simple to obtain good quality data whilst still retaining the important aspects of NMR so students gain real hands-on experience of NMR. It also aids and develops students' understanding of the technique."

Dr Ryan Mewis, Lecturer, Division of Chemistry and Environmental Science Manchester Metropolitan University.

Exceed Your Teaching Objectives with Benchtop NMR

In these challenging times, often students cannot gain hands-on experience with key equipment that forms an integral part of their course. Delivering critical laboratory teaching online, while maintaining practical real-time instrument interactivity can be a difficult objective to achieve.

Benchtop NMR is a technique that can deliver teaching objectives remotely through a desktop application connection directly from students’ personal laptop computers to the instrument. Using X-Pulse allows students to:

• Expand their understanding of NMR: Students will be able to control a real NMR spectrometer and can enter parameters to perform scans and obtain spectra in minutes.
• Build an understanding of experimental design: Students can design their NMR experiments to yield the best possible data.
• Carry out data collection in real-time: A wide variety of rapid 1D and 2D experiments can be carried out to enable structural elucidation.
• Perform data analysis: Students can either process their own data using market-leading Mestrelab Mnova software on the instrument controller, or export raw data to their laptop for remote processing.
• Present experimental results: Students can define spectral presentation layouts and export spectra with key acquisition parameters to incorporate into lab and project reports.
• Prepare students for ‘real-world’ NMR experiments with gradients included as standard

X-Pulse is a full broadband benchtop NMR spectrometer suitable for both teaching and research. It is equipped with advanced features such as gradients, X-Nuclei capability, flow cells and variable temperature probes commonly found on high field instruments.