Chemical Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at High Fields

Abstract

A review confined to nuclear magnetic resonance measurements in a particular field-strength range needs some justification. Although the advent of the superconducting magnet in NMR presents quite novel problems for the spectrometer designer, and involves the user in some new operating techniques, the jump from 100 MHz (for proton resonances) to 220 MHz does not involve any new form of spectroscopy, any more than did the earlier advances from 40 MHz to 60 MHz, and thence to 100 MHz. The advantages in spectrometer performance which result from using a superconducting magnet are of degree, not of kind, and one is not called upon to learn anything new about NMR in order to interpret the spectra; indeed, the effect in many cases is to simplify the interpretation, so that a sophisticated quantum-mechanical approach is less often needed.