Within the field of physics, there are many ways that one can analyze acompound to better understand its properties and how it functions when interacting withother materials. One of the various methods employed by scientists today is the methodof nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Before further explaining what NMRspectroscopy is, it is prudent to explain some fundamental facts and propertiesregarding atoms and how the application of a magnetic field can affect said atoms. Allatoms have a nucleus as a center and contained within said nucleus are nucleons. Thesenucleons, which are also referred to as protons or neutrons, have a spin and magneticmoment, which causes them to act in a manner similar to that of small magnets. Withthis established, one may now discuss how the application of a magnetic field and themeasurement of the effect said field has on the substance being analyzed can giveinformation about the material.

NMR, or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, has a long history of study, beginningprimarily in the 1940s through two separate researchers, Felix Bloch and Edward MillsPurcell. Their work led to the moment in 1952, where “the Nobel Prize for physics wasawarded to Felix Bloch and M. Purcell. In his Nobel lecture, 11 December, 1952,entitled ‘Research in nuclear magnetism’ Purcell already described all basic quantitiesand processes controlling NMR spectra” (Pfeifer 155). With the basics of nuclearmagnetic resonance established, later developments went into application. One exampleof this development in application came in the years following Bloch and Purcell as“Organic Chemists soon found that NMR spectroscopy was an ideal technique forelucidating or verifying the structure of moderate sized molecules” (Becker 297)