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ACD/Labs Blog

Symmetric Helical Synthesis Product This month’s problem is again a bit different from the others. It comes from the Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, UK. John Lowe had been trying to challenge Structure Elucidator and asked his colleagues at the Department for interesting problems. David Carbery gave him two synthetic samples, A and B,...

Benchtop NMR instruments are becoming an indispensable addition to the analytical laboratory for their ability to make NMR spectroscopy more accessible to chemists. Here we discuss the newer applications of benchtop NMR including material testing, flow chemistry and use in teaching.

An unexpected synthetic product coming from Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin, from the lab of Dr. Marc Nazaré. The dataset was provided to ACD/Labs as part of our Structure Elucidation Suite Challenge. The product was isolated after a reaction and it was found by HR-MS to have a molecular formula of C14H13N3O.

Back in 1996, I recall someone saying that prediction software such as ACD/Labs NMR Predictors would eliminate the need to run lab experiments, which would be replaced with “paper chemistry”. Organic chemistry researchers were even more cynical because they believed that nomenclature software - like ACD/Name - would enable students to avoid learning nomenclature rules. Overall, the faculty were concerned that ACD/NMR Predictors and ACD/Name put their jobs at risk. Fast-forward 21 years later, and I find myself a part of the ACD/Labs team that makes all these wonderful things possible.

PANIC 2017 took place at the Sonesta Resort in Hilton Head Island, SC, a few weeks ago. We knew we were in for a treat when we landed in bright sunshine at Savannah airport—quite a contrast from the cold and snow of Toronto. We realized things were a little bit …different in Hilton Head Island when the shuttle driver told us that yes, there are alligators here and we should be a bit careful when walking next to standing water. In fact we saw a couple of them next to the water in ponds on the way to the venue.