NMR-Challenge.com: An Interactive Website with Exercises in Solving Structures from NMR Spectra

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a very powerful analytical method that has found many applications in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. It is an indispensable tool particularly for synthetic chemists because it can be used for a rapid elucidation of the structures of organic compounds. For this reason, NMR spectral interpretation is a part of the core knowledge of all chemistry students, taught to them from the first years of their undergraduate studies. However, NMR spectral interpretation skills can only be learned by experience. We present a new educational website that includes more than 160 NMR spectral assignments measured for real samples. Each assignment contains NMR spectra of an unknown compound, with the task for the students being to determine its structure. Basic assignments contain only one-dimensional H-1 and C-13 NMR spectra; advanced assignments also offer two-dimensional correlation spectra. The web application is enriched with an interactive chemical structure drawing tool, which gives the users immediate feedback about their proposed structures. The presented assignments are graded according to difficulty to keep both beginners and advanced students motivated. The web page will be continuously updated with new spectral problems.