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ACD/Labs Blog

I got some great comments from Tony and Gary on the “Dealing with a Mixture…” post that I decided to do a follow-up post. http://acdlabs.typepad.com/elucidation/2008/02/dealing-with-a.html In my lab days, I would routinely workup a newly acquired 1H NMR for an unknown sample prior to acquiring a 2D NMR dataset. One of my goals was to examine...

As would-be elucidators dive into an elucidation for an organic unknown, narrowing down a single molecular formula (MF) becomes vital in simplifying the elucidation. However, one hurdle quickly leads into another. As the total atom count adds up, the number of possible isomers increases just as much (See Table and Graph below). I can’t imagine...

One of the hardest parts of interpreting an NMR dataset is separating peaks from a mixture of compounds. To illustrate this point, below are the aromatic regions of two 75 MHz 13C NMR run on a mixture of methylbenzene and ethylbenzene in CDCl3. If the mixture exists at an approximate 1:1 ratio (top figure), then...

Let me begin by stating my experiences with elucidations on organic molecules. I have led over 60 training sessions attended by chemists and Spectroscopists from Academia to industry around the world. Some more successful than others—this came down to expertise of the attendee. I have also conversed with dozens of chemists/Spectroscopists, experts and non-experts, at...