Laboratory equipment
Low-field NMR spectrometers (40-100 MHz) with permanent magnets are cost-effective and powerful alternatives to high-resolution devices, which are very expensive to purchase, operate and maintain. This gives them practical significance in pharmaceutical and chemical training and applications - for reaction or bioprocess monitoring, medical diagnostics or the analysis of chemical compounds, natural and pharmaceutical products and foodstuffs.
The 80 MHz spectrometer is used for teaching and research. Since the summer semester of 2022, we have been using it to offer experiments in the "Instrumental Analysis" practical training programme and provide our students with important know-how for their future careers: For example, self-made multi-component mixtures are analysed and quantified. Painkillers with the active ingredients acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol, caffeine or ibuprofen are characterised using various methods.
Last but not least: benchtop NMR devices offer uncomplicated integration of NMR measurements in various research projects, both for structural elucidation and for quantitative analysis and multivariate modelling of chemical data. This opens up new possibilities for exciting final theses in our laboratory.
In the IR spectrometer, the sample is exposed to polychromatic radiation in the IR range. This excites vibrations in the sample molecules. In addition to the characterisation and identification of unknown substances and the quantitative analysis of mixtures, IR spectroscopy is used for product and quality control by comparing spectra. Known substances can thus be identified very reliably by comparison with large libraries of sample spectra.
Gas chromatography is a very sensitive method for analysing mixtures of substances. It can be used to separate complex mixtures of substances into their individual components. By combining it with a mass spectrometer, known as GC/MS coupling, it is possible to carry out structural elucidation at the same time. Gas chromatography is used, for example, in the analysis of agricultural products for herbicides, hormones in meat products, in the analysis of pharmaceuticals, body fluids, flavours and essential oils, petroleum components and polymers.
