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A new horizon for vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy

10 June 2020 | News
by Ian Michael

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy is an extension of circular dichroism spectroscopy into the infrared (IR) and near infrared regions where vibrational transitions occur in the ground electronic state of a molecule. The method offers the advantage of studying the chiroptical properties of a wide range of molecules in non-crystalline states. However, due to the weakness of the signals, one measurement requires several hours to yield reliable results. Accordingly, its target has been limited to a stable molecule in a solution. To overcome this difficulty, a group at Ehime University applied the VCD method to supramolecular systems. Their results are reported in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Solid state and time-step VCD methods were developed to determine the mechanism of chirality amplification from the microscopic to supramolecular scales. The VCD signals were enhanced in the following three cases: (i) chiral gels with hundreds of molecules arranged in stereoregularity, (ii) chiral metal complexes with low-lying excited states in the IR region and (iii) a molecular pair interacting stereo-selectively on a solid surface. Finally, we described an on-going project involving the construction of a multi-dimensional VCD system.

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