The Carbon-13 NMR spectrum of ethoxyethane (diethyl ether)

Doc Brown's Chemistry Advanced Level Pre-University Chemistry Revision Study Notes for UK IB KS5 A/AS GCE advanced A level organic chemistry students US K12 grade 11 grade 12 organic chemistry courses involving molecular spectroscopy analysing C-13 NMR spectra of ethoxyethane

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TMS is the acronym for tetramethylsilane, formula Si(CH₃)₄, whose ¹³C atoms are arbitrarily given a chemical shift of 0.0 ppm. This is the 'standard' in ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and all other ¹³C shifts, called chemical shifts, depend on the individual (electronic) chemical environment of the ¹³C atoms in an organic molecule - ethoxyethane Ethoxyethane C₄H₁₀O, , ,

Interpreting the C-13 NMR spectrum of ethoxyethane (diethyl ether)

As you can see from the diagram above there are only 2 chemical shift lines in the C-13 NMR spectrum of ethoxyethane indicating only 2 different chemical environments of carbon atoms.

CH₃CH₂OCH₂CH₃

(note the colours indicating the two different chemical environment of the carbon atoms).