Point of Interest The NMR Revolution

A 1980 review of NMR developments by J. Jonas and H. S. Gutowksy [Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 31, 1 (1980)] began with the following statement Within three decades, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has developed into the most important spectroscopic technique in chemistry, such that today most chemical laboratories use NMR as a routine tool. Its impact and applications have only expanded further since that review appeared. Looking back, we can see NMR as a technique that significantly changed the study of chemistry. 

In 1946, observation of magnetic resonance in bulk matter was reported by Edward M. Purcell at Harvard University and by Felix Bloch at Stanford University. They shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in physics for this development. 

Other major developments by physicists followed, but the next part of the story of how NMR changed chemistry is expressed succinctly in the review by Jonas and Gutowsky— quoting from a lecture by M. E. Packard Chemists got the point very quickly, thanked the physicists, and took over. Martin E. Packard, by the way, had worked with Bloch and gone on to lead Varian Associates of Palo Alto, California, to the first commercial production of NMR instruments. 

About 1950, Hahn s work with appropriately spaced pulses of radiofrequency radiation and a 1948 report by Nicolaas Bloembergen, Purcell, and R. V. Pound set the stage for the study of relaxation processes in NMR and for investigation of dynamic structure of liquids. 

Significant advances in NMR sensitivity were made at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland, by Richard R. Ernst and coworkers. In 1976, Ernst introduced 2D Fourier transform NMR which earned him the 1991 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Two-dimensional NMR has broadened the application of NMR by unraveling the coupling between nuclei in large, complicated molecules. It has been used for structural and conformational analysis of biological molecules and other macromolecules. 

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