Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Sensitivity in reduced diameter tubes

Sensitivity is the bane of NMR. Spectroscopists are always looking for ways of increasing it, particularly when sample is limited. One suggested method to increase sensitivity is to reduce the volume while keeping the amount of material constant, thereby increasing the concentration. This can be done by using a smaller diameter NMR tube, e.g a 3 mm or 1.7 mm tube. I have been skeptical of this method for a long time and finally decided to test how well it works.