Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry, Advanced Course

The course covers selected topics in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS).

The NMR part of the course presents the fundamental aspects of 1D and 2D NMR. The theory of pulsed Fourier transform NMR is explained by the use of vector diagrams. Use of NMR for studying dynamic processes is explained. Application of shift reagents is discussed. Practical aspects of an NMR experiment are considered, including hands-on experience in operating an NMR instrument. Detailed instructions are provided and each student is expected to carry out his/her own NMR experiments on a Bruker NMR spectrometer.

In the MS part of the course, students will learn about the technical parts of the MS instruments, from the different ionization methods to the main mass analyzers.
Ionization methods section will present electron impact (EI), electrospray (ESI), chemical ionization (CI), field ionisation (FI), photo ionisation (PI), fast atom bombardement (FAB), secundary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), field desorption (FD), plasma desorption (PD) and laser desorption (LD and MALDI). Students will study the principles of mass analyzers like quadrupol, ion traps, ion cyclotron resonance (ICR), magnetic-electric sector (double focusing) and time-of-flight analyzers (TOF).
Course will also include the use of GC / MS and LC / MS instruments. MS applications in biology and organic chemistry analysis will be discussed.

After having completed the course, the student should: 1) understand the basic principles of NMR, 2) understand the concepts of 1D and 2D NMR experiment, 3) be able to extract specific information about structure of a compound from various NMR experiments, 4) be skilled enough to elucidate an unknown structure, or to solve a structure-related problem, by combining information obtained from various NMR experiments, 5) be able to choose NMR experiments which are the most appropriate for solving a particular problem, 6) be able to independently run standard 1D and 2D experiments 7) understand the difference between all ionization methods and mass analyzers, 8) be able to choose the relevant MS instrument (ionization+mass analyser) that is best suited to a given problem.

The teaching is given through lectures and exercises (practical and theoretical).
For extraordinary or re-sit examinations, written examination may be changed to oral examination. Lectures and exercises are in English. The examination paper will only be given in English, and the answers have to be given in English, as well.