A special "No-D" experiment can be used for samples in protonated solvent. For example, one may wish to obtain data directly form a reaction mixture or from chromatographic output. The No-D experiment skips the autolock step and shims on H instead of D. The No-D experiment also provides a "solvent suppression" method to partially remove the proton solvent resonance from the spectrum. Ideally a solvent for No-D NMR should have a single proton resonance (c.f CHCl3 or H2O). Samples with multiple solvent lines can be managed with further special techniques.
Note that the NMR instrument requires only about 10% deuterated solvent to lock and shim. For example, most protein work is done with 10% deuterium oxide in water. For another example, one of our users adds 10% deuterochloroform when using carbon dissulfide as a solvent.
Consider the following trick if you simply cannot add deuterium. First run a study using a deuterated solvent without sample. This study will set the lock and shims. Then run a second study with the sample in the same protonated solvent and with lock and shims turned off. The original shims will be used and will usually be sufficient. Be sure that both samples are filled to the exact same height and centered. When running without lock the PPM scale may be shifted. Use a reference material with the sample such as TMS or DSS to establish 0 PPM.
