Chemistry, Third edition

20 · LIGHT AND SPECTROSCOPY

Human beings are composed of organic material, and therefore contain a large

amount of combined hydrogen in many different compounds. This makes the human

body a possible ‘sample’ for an NMR instrument. In hospitals, the phrase ‘nuclear

magnetic resonance’ has been dropped in favour of magnetic resonance(because

patients might wrongly believe the technique involves ionizing radiation) and the

instruments used are commonly simply called scanners, but the principle of the

instruments is the same as their laboratory-based cousins.

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Fig. 20.32^1 H-NMR spectrum of ethyl ethanoate at 60 MHz. Notice that the resonance at 2.05

is a singlet – the methyl protons in the acyl group are too far from the other protons for their

resonance to be split.

Fig. 20.33^1 H-NMR spectrum of 1,1-dibromoethane at 60 MHz.