Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) is one of the most versatile and powerful techniques available to the organic chemist for structure determination of compounds. Providing hundreds of Introductory Organic Chemistry Lab students with timely, high quality, NMR spectra on the compounds they synthesize presents a major challenge. We have a state-of-art, fully automated NMR system dedicated to the Organic Chemistry Instructional Laboratories. This system was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education, under the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program. The system can automatically obtain high quality NMR spectra on as many as 200 samples in a 24 hour period, allowing all organic chemistry lab students to analyze their products using NMR. The NMR system is also made available for hands-on use to a smaller number of students in Chemistry 346, Intermediate Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

Next to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry, Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) is the most versatile and routinely used tool available to the organic chemist for characterizing compounds. All students in Introductory Organic Chemistry Laboratory gain hands-on experience using state-of-art Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to characterize the compounds they synthesize in the laboratory.

In Chemistry 344, Introductory Organic Chemistry Laboratory, students gain first hand experience carrying out many of the types of organic reactions that are fundamental to synthetic organic chemistry and the understanding of chemistry in biological systems. Students employ a variety of instrumental methods to analyze their products. In the activity pictured here, a teaching assistant is instructing a student in the use of Gas Chromatography to analyze the equilibrium composition of a Fischer Esterification Reaction. From this analysis, the student will determine the equilibrium constant for the reaction.