Analytical Problem-Solving Procedures for Undergraduates by 1 H NMR

Abstract

1H NMR Spectroscopy is widely used technique, but until recently was of limited practical importance in pharmaceutical and chemical education. Teaching1H NMR spectroscopy remains a challenge in all the chemistry labs, as the number of facts obtained from each experiment is easily overwhelming for the students. We developed four different experimental settings for the undergraduates which connect interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches with the hands-on experience in NMR. The set of the experiments consists of amino acids identification, logP value determination, quantitative determination of the marketed over the counter drugs, and pKa value determination. We could show that our approach to teach NMR has significantly improved the understanding of the technique among our students.