What key factors would you use to analyse a high resolution proton NMR spectrum

Fisrt you would use the chemical shift data of the main peaks, this gives you an idea of the chemical environment of the hydrogen atom that caused this peak. A more downfield signal (higher chemical shift value) means that the hydrogen is in a less electrong dense environment indicating that it is bonded to more electron withdrawing atoms. Next you would analyse the splitting patterns in the main peaks. Splitting arises due to spin orbit coupling with hydrgens in adjectent chemical environments (for a simple alkane this means the hydrogens bonded to carbon atom adjectent to the one where the hydrogens are causeing the peak). We use the n+1 rule to identify how many hydrogen atoms are in the adjecent chemical environment, for example if the peak in question had split into 3 peaks (a triplet) this would tell us that there are n+1=3 hydrogens in the adjacent chemical environment (n=2). Finally we analyse the integrated spectrum which gives us a numerical ratio comparing the area underneath each peak. This allows us to find the ratio of hydrogens in each environment present in the molecule. For example CH3COOh would create two peaks with a ration of 3:1.

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Answered by Benjamin S. Chemistry tutor

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