Book and Media Review pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Review of NMR Spectroscopy: Basic Principles, Concepts and Applications in Chemistry Kenneth C. Wong* American Air Liquide, Newark, Delaware 19702 United States part of NMR Spectroscopy cover factors affecting chemical shifts and coupling constants, analysis of high-resolution NMR spectra, and the influence of molecular symmetry and chirality on NMR spectra. The treatments of these three topics are more thorough and extend well beyond elementary organic chemistry. The chapter on high-resolution NMR spectra has the most mathematical focus in the book. The presentations for AB, AX, ABX, and AA′XX′ spectra are quantum mechanical, and symmetry arguments are used in the diagonalization of secular determinants. The second part of the book presents more advanced NMR spectroscopy topics, including Fourier transform NMR, 2-D NMR, carbon-13 NMR, NMR spectroscopy of other nuclei, dynamic NMR, partially oriented molecules and solid state NMR, and selected NMR topics. The first three chapters in this part of the book address experimental as well as the theoretical aspects of common techniques such as Fourier transform, homonuclear and heteronuclear 2-D techniques, NOSEY, and DEPT. Phase cycle and relaxation are treated as introductions, with a limited number of phase cycle examples. The chapter on NMR of other nuclei provides a good starting point for those who are interested in nuclei beyond hydrogen and carbon. Many tables and charts of chemical shifts and coupling constants for nuclei other than hydrogen and carbon are included. This chapter also contains many interesting spectra (1-D and 2-D) of other nuclei. Selected topics of NMR are covered in the last chapter, which explores topics such as DOSY, the para-hydrogen effect, hyperpolarized nuclei, chemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (CIDNP), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and biological NMR. This chapter provides good introductions to these topics that are typically not found in many NMR textbooks. The CIDNP phenomenon is particularly well explained. Throughout NMR Spectroscopy, a wide variety of examples and exercises related to organic and organometallic chemistry illustrate NMR principles. The exercises reinforce ideas presented in the text, and many of these problems are interesting, informative, and challenging. Detailed solutions for some of the exercises can be found at the end of the book. This is definitely not a book for someone who intends to learn details about product operator formalism, density matrices, or quantum mechanics. Although product operator formalism is presented in the second part of the book, it is not widely used throughout the text. Pictorial vector diagrams are also not extensively used to explain spin evolution. It is fair to say that NMR Spectroscopy is written primarily for organic chemists and with NMR applications in mind.
NMR Spectroscopy: Basic Principles, Concepts and Applications in Chemistry; 3rd edition by HaraldGünther Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, Germany, 2013. xvi + 718 pp. ISBN 978-3527330003 (paper). $95.00.
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ew good textbooks on NMR spectroscopy are available at either the undergraduate or graduate levels. For those who want to go beyond elementary organic chemistry but without delving into all the mathematics, Friebolin’s1 book is probably the best among this category. Jacobsen’s,2 Keeler’s,3 and Levitt’s4 books provide the best introductions to the physics behind NMR spectroscopy, although these books use mathematics extensively. One common feature these three books2−4 share is that only a few compounds are used repeatedly to illustrate the principles of various NMR techniques. In contrast, NMR Spectroscopy: Basic Principles, Concepts and Applications in Chemistry, third edition, offers a wide variety of organic examples and is written at a level between the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Cover image provided by Wiley-VCH and reproduced with permission.
NMR Spectroscopy has over 700 pages and is completely updated and revised from the second edition (with some typographical errors present). Without relying on an extensive mathematical treatment relative to the Keeler3 and Levitt4 texts, Günther does employ mathematics to explain NMR phenomena; this approach makes NMR more understandable for those without a deep mathematical background. The book is divided into two parts. The first part covers basic principles and applications. The basics of NMR spectroscopy, instrumentation, and chemical shift and coupling constants are described in the first three chapters. Most of the material in these chapters is quite similar to that found in a first-year organic chemistry course. The last three chapters of the first © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed500324w | J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Book and Media Review
When considering subject clarity, few books can compete with the Jacobsen,2 Keeler,3 and Friebolin1 texts. However, in NMR Spectroscopy, Günther covers material that the other three do not. Furthermore, the diversity of organic examples throughout the book makes NMR Spectroscopy an invaluable reference to many chemists, and a fine complement to Jacobsen’s2 and Keeler’s3 books.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Friebolin, H. One and Two-Dimensional NMR Spectroscopy, 5th ed.; Wiley-VCH: Darmstadt, Germany, 2010. (2) Jacobsen, N. NMR Spectroscopy Explained; Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, 2007. (3) Keeler, J. Understanding NMR Spectroscopy, 2nd ed.; Wiley: Chichester, U. K., 2010. (4) Levitt, M. Spin Dynamics, 2nd ed.; Wiley: Chichester, U. K., 2008.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed500324w | J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
