Benchtop NMR Spectrometer Used for Undergraduate Teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University

Magritek, a leading provider of compact NMR and MRI instruments, report on the use of their Spinsolve Benchtop NMR spectrometer in the Chemistry Department of Virginia Commonwealth University. It is being used in the undergraduate teaching program under the supervision of Ms Meredith Moses.

Ms Lucy (Meredith) Moses is a member of the Faculty in the Chemistry Department and is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She teaches a hands-on approach to enable students to understand and run analytical techniques rather than to rely solely on text books and second-hand spectra. Her group is using the Magritek Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometer.

The Spinsolve is used in the teaching laboratories for Organic Chemistry Lab. It is integrated mostly for second semester students but is also used for the Honors section of the first semester. Ms Moses said: “We use the NMR so that the students know and understand about NMR. If they go to grad school or industry, they need to be familiar with it. Also, they are expected to be able to analyse spectra for their second semester (lecture) final exam. I like them to produce spectra of their own compounds so they know if they got the right product or not. Some instructors just hand out spectra of one groups’ sample or use literature spectra, but that somewhat defeats the purpose of a practical course. Students should know how good their product is.”

The Magritek Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometer is supplied worldwide to academics in teaching and research; to industry for research and reaction monitoring through to product quality control. To obtain full details of the Spinsolve benchtop NMR spectrometer and the full range of analytical products from Magritek, visit www.magritek.com.