Understanding NMR Spectroscopy [Hardcover]

James Keeler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470017864 | ISBN-13: 978-0470017869 | Publication Date: December 6, 2005 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

"...very clear and informative book. Keeler's text is highly recommended." (Times Higher Education Supplement, 24th Feb 2006)

"… the great strength of James Keeler's book is its clarity …" (Times Higher Educational Supplement, February 2006)

From the Back Cover

Understanding NMR Spectroscopy

James Keeler Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK

This text is aimed at people who have some familiarity with high-resolution NMR, and who now wish to deepen their understanding of how NMR experiments actually work The book concentrates on those experiments which are commonly used in structural studies of small- to medium-sized molecules.  Although the special experiments used in biomolecular NMR are not considered explicitly, the key concepts and ideas introduced in this book are very relevant to understanding such experiments.

The book starts off at a gentle pace, working through some more-or-less familiar ideas, and then elaborating these as the discussion progresses. Sufficient quantum mechanics is introduced to enable a proper analysis of the pulse sequences, but the approach taken is informal. All of the calculations are gone through step-by-step, with commentary on each stage so that you can see exactly what is going on.

This is neither a how to book, nor a book about the theory of NMR. Rather, the aim of the text is to give the reader a set of tools with which to analyse and think about modern NMR experiments.

Each chapter ends with exercises which are designed to assist in the understanding of the ideas presented. A solutions manual for these exercises is available on-line via the SpectroscopyNow website: http://www.spectroscopynow.com/nmr

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 476 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470017864
• ISBN-13: 978-0470017869
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,553,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very reader friendly NMR textbook, May 29, 2006

By 

Magnus Kjaergaard - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Understanding NMR Spectroscopy (Paperback)

Dr. Keeler's is called "Understanding NMR spectroscopy", and that is exactly what it will help you do. He makes very few assumptions about previous knowledge of math and quantum physics. He explains abstract concepts using good analogies. I have tried to read multiple NMR textbooks, and this is by far the most readable... Excellent work Dr. Keeler.... However you should realise what this book is NOT. It is not about how to record and analyze NMR data and it is not an advanced textbook, but aimed for people new to the field with need to understand how an NMR experiment works.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction, May 20, 2008

By 

Ken from Doylestown (Doylestown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Understanding NMR Spectroscopy (Paperback)

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).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for an early grad student, August 21, 2007

By 

Michael Clarkson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Understanding NMR Spectroscopy (Paperback)

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.