NMR spectroscopy in first-year chemistry at the university of technology Sydney

© 2016 American Chemical Society. First-year general chemistry classes at large universities typically enroll students with diverse backgrounds. The vast majority of these students are not chemistry majors. NMR instrumentation was introduced to this class to engage these students in their learning and to represent modern chemistry to students for whom this course might be their only chemistry experience. We have incorporated NMR spectroscopy into the general chemistry laboratory experiments at the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia. Benchtop NMR spectrometers now mean that students can have close and frequent access to instrumentation. This chapter describes the use of the picoSpin-45 NMR spectrometer in the introductory laboratory, the types of experiments performed, quiz and survey results, and implementation challenges and successes.