Question: which compounds are nmr active?
Answer: NMR spectroscopy. NMR occurs due to the absorbance of radio frequency radiation to cause the "flipping" of nuclear spins from low to high energy spin states. While not all nuclei are NMR active (e.g. 12C and 16O are inactive), the most important nuclei for organic chemists are 1H and 13C (both with nuclear spin = 1/2).