I am trying to remember something I learned in my structural spectroscopy class but the details are fuzzy.

 

I seem to remember that if water is present in a sample of an alcohol or carboxylic acid, the integration of any OH peak does not actually reflect the number of hydrogens present. Something about, the OH peak of the compound of interest is closer to the water OH peak than it should be, and the integration of the peak is greater than the actual number of protons.

 

Does this ring a bell to anyone?

 

I ask because I have a spectra of an alcohol and the OH peak is integrating at almost double what it should be. Maybe I am just desperate for my product. Haha! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

compound nmr.bmp

Methanol and water both show up at 4.8 ppm: http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~webspectra/NotesOnSolvents.html

If two hydrogen atoms are in fast exchange, a single signal will appear at the weighted average of the chemical shifts of each one by itself.