N.P. Armitage notes on pulsed NMR experiment.

Nuclear magnetic resonance is a experimental technique that has vast applicability in the characterization of solid state and atomic/molecular samples.  It is used widely in condensed matter physics and analytical chemistry.  It is no so routine that it is used as a standard imaging method in the form of MRI.  A Nobel prize for MRI was even given recently.

In this laboratory you will perform pulsed NMR, a powerful invented by a young postdoctoral scientist name Erwin Hahn that revolutionized the field.

The TeachSpin pulsed NMR rig is very powerful and can be used to perform many measurements not explicitly described in the manual.  After performing the standard measurements, I encourage you to explore other liquids or materials which you can introduce into the sample holder.  Remember:  the technique is sufficiently sensitive that only a very very small amount of material typically needs to be used.

Scanned versions of the TeachSpin PSA-1 manual: There are 5 sections.

•     Introduction (gives theoretical background.), pp. 1-13.
•     The Instrument (describes details of the instrumentation), pp. 14-24.
•     Getting Started (introductory exercises), pp. 25-34.
•     Experiments (more advanced investigations.), pp. 35-36.
•     Specifications (instrument specs.), pp. 38-39

Some helpful links:

TeachSpin's abysmal webpage on their otherwise nice product.

"Getting Started" on the TeachSpin NMR system:  A good overview to getting your first signal - the hard part

Actually here is good .pdf overview from TeachSpin on pulsed NMR - so their website is not a total waste...

Wikipedia's NMR page - Much history and background information.

An online NMR textbook! by Joseph P. Hornak, Ph.D

modified N.P. Armitage 2006-10-01