Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (A-level only) common mistakes

Common mistakes

• Misinterpreting chemical shifts

  Students often confuse the ppm values and assign incorrect functional groups.

  Fix itRefer to a chemical shift table to accurately identify the functional groups based on the observed ppm values.

• Misinterpreting chemical shifts

  Students often confuse chemical shifts of protons in different environments, leading to incorrect structural assignments.

  Fix itRefer to a chemical shift table and consider the influence of electronegative atoms and hybridization on the chemical shift.

• Misinterpreting Integration Values

  Students often confuse the integration value with the chemical shift or splitting pattern.

  Fix itRemember that integration values indicate the number of protons contributing to a peak, not their position or splitting.

• Misinterpreting Chemical Shifts

  Students often confuse the chemical shift values with the number of hydrogen atoms present.

  Fix itRemember that chemical shifts indicate the environment of the hydrogen atoms, not their quantity.