Question

Can all nuclei be studied by NMR? What property of a nucleus determines whether it is NMR active?

Answer 1

All the nuclei cannot be studied by NMR(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance).The NMR phenomenon is based on the fact that nuclei of atoms have magnetic properties that can be utilized to yield chemical information.The atoms must possess nuclear spin.Many atoms the nucleus does possess an overall spin. For example ¹H and ¹³C.

The rules for determining the net spin of a nucleus are as follows :

(1) If the number of neutrons and the number of protons are both even, then the nucleus has NO spin.

(2) If the number of neutrons plus the number of protons is odd, then the nucleus has a half-integer spin

                 ( 1/2, 3/2, 5/2)

(3) If the number of neutrons and the number of protons are both odd, then the nucleus has an integer spin

                   ( 1, 2, 3)