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The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer
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Leonard Rorrer assists Dr. Erich Uffelman (l to r in background) as Michele Connors interprets the NMR spectrum |
We have used our NSF-sponsored acquisition of a JEOL Eclipse+ 400 MHz multinuclear NMR spectrometer to spearhead several undergraduate teaching lab initiatives within our department. In General Chemistry, we modified the Smell Module developed by the ModularCHEM Consortium and used it to introduce NMR spectroscopy. Our three week laboratory exercise introduces freshmen to fundamental concepts of stereochemistry, then relates the neuroscience of the nose to chemical structure, then shows the insights into chemical structure revealed by the spectrometer. All 100-120 of our General Chemistry students receive hands-on experience with the spectrometer. At the advanced level, we created a new microscale synthesis course that emphasizes the fundamental coordination chemistry of transition metals and transition metal-based catalysts. Students synthesize complexes from the recent chemical literature and use complexes to perform catalytic reactions (such as enantioselective epoxidation and ring opening metathesis polymerization). Students explore the NMR spectroscopy of diamagnetic and paramagnetic complexes, and the NMR characteristics of chiral shift reagents and of metal carbenes. In research, students use the NMR to characterize macrocyclic ligands and their precursors, chiral ligands and metal-carbene complexes, and the kinetic parameters of ring opening metathesis polymerization. The pedagagogical work and research work are the subject of manuscripts in press or in preparation and have been presented at National American Chemical Society meetings. |
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