The following table gives the region of the expected nuclear magnetic resonance absorptions of major chemical families (Refs. 1–12). These absorptions are reported in the dimensionless units of parts per million (ppm) as a chemical shift with respect to the absorption of the standard compound tetramethylsilane (TMS), which is recorded as 0.0 ppm.
The use of this unit of measure makes the chemical shifts independent of the applied magnetic field strength or the radio frequency. For most proton NMR spectra, the protons in TMS are more shielded than almost all other protons. The chemical shift in this dimensionless unit system is then defined by:
where vs and vr are the absorption frequencies of the sample proton and the reference (TMS) protons (12, magnetically equivalent), respectively. In these tables, the proton(s) whose proton NMR shifts are cited are indicated by underscore. Ref. 1 provides additional details on the absorptions of other moieties, as well as correlation charts.
Major chemical families are included in the following tables.
Table No. | Chemical family |
1 | Hydrocarbons |
2 | Organic Oxygen Compounds |
Organic Nitrogen Compounds | |
3 | Amides |
4 | Amines |
5 | Cyano Compounds |
6 | Nitro Compounds |
Organic Sulfur Compounds | |
7 | Benzothiopyrans, Disulfides, Isothiocyanates, Mercaptans, S-Methyl Salts, and Sulfates |
8 | Sulfides and Other Families |
Group | δ/ppm of underlined protons |
Alkanes | |
CH3-R | ~0.8 |
-CH2-R | ~1.1 |
>CH-R | ~1.4 |
Cyclopropane | 0.2 |
Alkenes | |
CH3-C=C< | ~1.6 |
-CH2-C=C< | ~2.1 |
>CH- C=C< | ~2.5 |
CH3-C-C=C< | ~1.0 |
-CH2-C-C=C< | ~1.4 |
>CH-C-C=C< | ~1.8 |
>C=C-H | 4.2 - 6.2 |
Alkynes | |
CH3-C≡C- | ~1.7 |
-CH2-C≡C- | ~2.2 |
>CH -C≡C- | ~2.7 |
CH3-C-C≡C- | ~1.2 |
>CH-C-C≡C- | ~1.5 |
>CH -C-C≡C- | ~1.8 |
R-C≡C-H | ~2.4 |
Aromatics | |
C6H5-G | 8.5 - 6.9 |
Group | Approximate δ/ppm of underlined protons |
Continued on next page... | |
Alcohols | |
CH3-OH | 3.2 |
RCH2-OH | 3.4 |
R2CH-OH | 3.6 |
CH3-C-OH | 1.2 |
RCH2-C-OH | 1,5 |
R2CH-C-OH | 1.8 |
R-O-H | 1 to 5 |
Aldehydes | |
CH3-CHO | 2.2 |
RCH2-CHO | 2.4 |
R2CH-CHO | 2.5 |
CH3-C-CHO | 1.1 |
RCH2-C-CHO | 1.6 |
Amides | |
See organic nitrogen compounds | |
Anhydrides, acylic | |
CH3-C(=O)O- | 1.8 |
RCH2-C(=O)O- | 2.1 |
R2CH-C(=O)O- | 2.3 |
CH3-C-C(=O)O- | 1.2 |
RCH2-C-C(=O)O- | 1.8 |
R2CH-C-C(=O)O- | 2.0 |