Course Objectives, Requirements & Contents

During the past several decades, spectroscopic techniques including ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR), mass (MS), X-ray diffraction (X-ray), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have been developed to be the dominant methods on the characterization of chemical structures of organic compounds. It’s convenient to elucidate the most chemical structures of organic compounds from the complementary information afforded by the five types of spectra.

In this course, we attempt to introduce:

(1) the spectrometric theory and instrumentation

(2) the explanation of UV, IR, MS, X-ray, and NMR spectra

(3) the elucidation of the simple structures of organic compounds from the complementary information afforded by the various spectra.

The course is going to be taught on the basis of six chapters including UV spectroscopy (chapter one, 4 hour periods), IR spectroscopy (chapter two, 8 hour periods), MS spectroscopy (chapter three, 9 hour periods), X-ray diffraction (chapter four, 6 hour periods), NMR spectroscopy (chapter five, 15 hour periods), combination (chapter six, 6 hour periods). In the final of the term, there are two reviews possess 6 hour periods. In addition, 6 labs including UV, IR, MS, X-ray, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR, and possess 18 hour periods.

During the course, we do explain the spectrometric theory and their spectra. It is important to utilize the five spectra to elucidate the chemical structures of organic compounds. For this purpose, we are going to give more examples of the spectra during the course. Moreover, we are going to select some simple and quality spectra including UV, IR, NMR, MS, and X-ray from our researches as examples to explain during the course for arousing the interest of the students. In the experiments, we also select some compounds with simpler chemical structures (e.g. flavonoids and caffeic acids) from our researches as tested samples. In summary, the combination of theory and application is the characteristic of the course.

Credits: 3.5