NMRspektroskopiassa

NMR spectroscopy, or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, is a powerful analytical technique used to determine the structure of molecules. It exploits the magnetic properties of certain atomic nuclei, such as hydrogen-1 (¹H) and carbon-13 (¹³C). When placed in a strong magnetic field, these nuclei can absorb and re-emit radiofrequency radiation at specific frequencies. The exact frequency, known as the resonance frequency, is highly sensitive to the local electronic environment of the nucleus. This means that nuclei in different chemical environments within a molecule will resonate at different frequencies.

The resulting spectrum is a plot of signal intensity versus frequency (or chemical shift, a normalized value). Peaks in the NMR spectrum provide information about the types of nuclei present, their number, and their connectivity to other atoms. For instance, the chemical shift of a proton tells us about the functional group it belongs to, while the splitting pattern of a signal (due to spin-spin coupling with neighboring protons) reveals how many protons are adjacent to it. Integration of the peak areas gives the relative number of each type of nucleus.

NMR spectroscopy is indispensable in organic chemistry for structure elucidation of newly synthesized compounds and for confirming the identity of known substances. It also finds applications in materials science, biochemistry, and medical imaging (as MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging). The technique is non-destructive, meaning the sample can often be recovered and used for other analyses after the NMR measurement.