NMR
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Chemistry
| Stands for | Nuclear magnetic resonance |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
NMR stands for Nuclear magnetic resonance, a chemistry abbreviation.
Spectroscopic technique that places a sample in a strong magnetic field and probes atomic nuclei such as hydrogen-1 and carbon-13 with radio waves. The resulting spectrum reveals how atoms are connected, making NMR the main tool organic chemists use to confirm the structure of a new compound.
Example: The 1H NMR spectrum in CDCl3 showed a singlet at 2.1 ppm integrating to three protons.
Usage notes
Isidor Rabi first detected nuclear magnetic resonance in molecular beams in 1938, and Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell independently observed it in liquids and solids in 1946, sharing the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics. Medical MRI uses the same physics; "nuclear" was dropped partly to avoid alarming patients. Spectrometers are described by their proton frequency, such as 400 MHz or 600 MHz.