17O NMR for H2O vs. D2O

D₂O rather than H₂O is recommended for setting up an NMR spectrometer to observe ¹⁷O. This is because D₂O is isolated based on its higher mass. It has more than the natural abundance of ¹⁷O and in turn gives a larger NMR signal than H₂O which has only the natural abundance of ¹⁷O (0.037 %). The figure below shows the ¹⁷O NMR spectra of H₂O and D₂O acquired on the same volume of sample under identical conditions.