Safety note: Some of the materials mentioned here are very dangerous. Ask a qualified chemist for advice before handling them. Qualified chemists should check the relevant safety literature before handling or giving advice about unfamiliar substances. NMR solvents are toxic and most are flammable. Specifically, aluminum salts may be toxic in large doses.

²⁷Aluminum NMR

²⁷Aluminum (²⁷Al)is a high sensitivity nucleus that yields broad lines over a wide chemical shift range. ²⁷Al is a spin 5/2 nucleus and is therefore quadrupolar. As a result, the signal width increases with asymmetry of the environment with somewhat broad lines in symmetrical environments (fig. 1) but very broad lines in asymmetric ones. The main use of aluminum NMR is to detect the presence of aluminum and measure its relaxation rate in order to detect binding. There is always a broad signal arising from the probe in the ²⁷Al spectrum. There is little information available about aluminum chemical shifts (fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Chemical shift ranges for ²⁷Al NMR

Fig. 2. ²⁷Al-NMR spectrum of AlCl₃ in D₂O

Properties of ²⁷Al

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