Toward the Development of Rapid, Automated Identification Tests for Neat Organic Liquids Using Benchtop NMR Instrumentation

The advent of benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrumentation has paved the way for the use of this technology away from traditional NMR facility settings. Still, a wider adoption of benchtop NMR systems for routine identification testing has been hampered by inherent instrumental limitations (including low sensitivity and reduced signal dispersion) and workflow automation challenges. The present study summarizes the results of a cross-company collaboration aiming at the development of rapid, automated identification tests for incoming materials in liquid form intended for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Potential scenarios that analysts may encounter during the development of identification tests using benchtop NMR instrumentation are described, and suitable strategies for data collection and analysis are discussed. Challenges and opportunities for benchtop NMR implementation are illustrated using common organic solvents and laboratory reagents in a neat form, for which reference NMR data are provided.