Product Description

Understanding NMR Spectroscopy

James Keeler Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK


This text discusses the high-resolution NMR of liquid samples and concentrates exclusively on spin-half nuclei (mainly 1H and 13C). It is aimed at people who are familiar with the use of routine NMR for structure determination and who wish to deepen their understanding of just exactly how NMR experiments work. It demonstrates that in NMR it is possible, quite literally on the back of an envelope, to make exact predictions of the outcome of quite sophisticated experiments. The experiments chosen are likely to be encountered in the routine NMR of small to medium-sized molecules, but are also applicable to the study of large biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids.

The book starts off at a gentle pace, working through some more-or-less familiar ideas, and then elaborating these as the book progresses. Each chapter ends with exercises which are designed to assist in the understanding of the ideas presented and to grasp the underlying ideas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320784 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 476 pages

Review
"The writing is quite clear and very well illustrated." (CHOICE, June 2006)

"Throughout, its goal is clear and concise explanation (Chemistry & Industry, 20th March 2006)

"Such attention to detail and clarity is one of the greatest strengths of this excellent book…I would highly recommend..." (Chemistry World- 1st August 2006)

From the Back Cover
Understanding NMR Spectroscopy

James Keeler Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK

This text discusses the high-resolution NMR of liquid samples and concentrates exclusively on spin-half nuclei (mainly 1H and 13C). It is aimed at people who are familiar with the use of routine NMR for structure determination and who wish to deepen their understanding of just exactly how NMR experiments work. It demonstrates that in NMR it is possible, quite literally on the back of an envelope, to make exact predictions of the outcome of quite sophisticated experiments. The experiments chosen are likely to be encountered in the routine NMR of small to medium-sized molecules, but are also applicable to the study of large biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids.

The book starts off at a gentle pace, working through some more-or-less familiar ideas, and then elaborating these as the book progresses. Each chapter ends with exercises which are designed to assist in the understanding of the ideas presented and to grasp the underlying ideas.

About the Author
Dr James Keeler is responsible for undergraduate studies in chemistry and related subjects at the University of Cambridge. He is an active research in the development of new methodologies in NMR and is Editor-in-Chief of Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Introduction
This book grew out of a series of lecture notes for various summer schools and graduate courses. The original lecture notes can be downloaded from the web. For several years, I was reluctant to buy this book because I thought the lecture notes from the web and the book are not much different. How wrong can I be. The web version contains a number of typos and several sections are not numbered correctly. The book is virtually free from typos and the presentation is much better. You can read from the book that the author has a lot of teaching experience. Although the book mainly deals with the theoretical aspects of the modern nmr, the math to understand the book is only freshman math. The only math that you need is:

Trigonometry of compound angles and half angles
Simple first order differential equation
Simple manipulation of complex numbers
Operator algebra, and
Elementary matrix algebra

Do not be intimidated by the math. All the math, except matrix, that is needed can basically be found in Appendix A. There is nothing complex in the math used throughout the book. All the mathematical manipulations are presented in a step by step fashion. The book deals mainly with the most popular nmr techniques such as COSY, DQF-COSY and NOE. Because the book focuses on the theoretical aspects of nmr, it hardly touches on any spectrum interpretations. Sometimes, I feel the book a little bit dry. Virtual coupling, an important concept in TOCSY, is not discussed in Keeler's book. However, do not get me wrong. This is a book I enjoy reading very much. The chapters on relaxation and coherence transfer pathway, phase cycle and pulsed of field gradient are well presented.

How does this book compare with other nmr books? Compare with Neil Jacobsen's book "NMR Spectroscopy Explained", I still like
Jacobsen's book more. Jacobsen's book is more detailed and contains a lot more information. Furthermore , it covers spectrum interpretation and dynamic nmr. Anyone seriously interested in nmr spectroscopy should have this and Jacobsen's books in his/her library.

You may ask; How about Levitt's book " Spin Dynamics". I have never read this book. The second edition of this book just came out in April this year. I bought a copy and Levitt's book will be my reading project for this summer (over 700 pages).

Excellent resource. Not the easiest read.
Informative and insightful, but assumes a certain foreknowledge of NMR techniques. An excellent resource for people with a working knowledge of NMR who want to improve their fundamental understanding of the technique. Not recommended for those who need a more rudimentary introduction to NMR.

Excellent book for an early grad student
Keeler's book is a very clear exposition of the physical basis and quantum mechanical underpinnings of modern NMR experiments. Because it is fundamentally based on the quantum mechanics, it is, I feel, a better introduction to heteronuclear NMR than the popular book by Claridge. At the same time, Keeler avoids the dense pages of mathematics that can make Cavanagh et al.'s excellent book intimidating to students who are not experts on quantum mechanics. An additional plus for me was Keeler's refreshingly clear description of the physical origins of T2 relaxation.

At the same time, there are some deficiencies here. Keeler does not go into chemical exchange effects in any depth, and I do not believe he mentions REX at all. There is also no discussion of residual dipolar couplings, the model-free dynamics formalism, or diffusion experiments. Pulsed-field gradients and phase-cycling are presented almost as an afterthought. The discusisons of coherence order and raising/lowering operators leave something to be desired and the later chapters in which they appear are structured awkwardly. Keeler deals exclusively with dipolar systems in liquids, limitations that may make this text inappropriate for some labs.

That said, for someone who's had some exposure to NMR (in, say, an organic chemistry course) this is an excellent, clear tour of some theoretical NMR basics that can provide a useful framework for approaching more comprehensive texts. Graduate students without a stong background in physical chemistry who intend to perform advanced work in NMR may find this book particularly helpful.