Can circularly polarized light be used to obtain chiral compounds of high optical purity?

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. B. Kagan ◽  
G. Balavoine ◽  
A. Moradpour
Author(s):  
Marcos F. Maestre

Recently we have developed a form of polarization microscopy that forms images using optical properties that have previously been limited to macroscopic samples. This has given us a new window into the distribution of structure on a microscopic scale. We have coined the name differential polarization microscopy to identify the images obtained that are due to certain polarization dependent effects. Differential polarization microscopy has its origins in various spectroscopic techniques that have been used to study longer range structures in solution as well as solids. The differential scattering of circularly polarized light has been shown to be dependent on the long range chiral order, both theoretically and experimentally. The same theoretical approach was used to show that images due to differential scattering of circularly polarized light will give images dependent on chiral structures. With large helices (greater than the wavelength of light) the pitch and radius of the helix could be measured directly from these images.


Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 368 (6498) ◽  
pp. 1465-1468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Daly ◽  
Frédéric Rosu ◽  
Valérie Gabelica

DNA and proteins are chiral: Their three-dimensional structures cannot be superimposed with their mirror images. Circular dichroism spectroscopy is widely used to characterize chiral compounds, but data interpretation is difficult in the case of mixtures. We recorded the electronic circular dichroism spectra of DNA helices separated in a mass spectrometer. We studied guanine-rich strands having various secondary structures, electrosprayed them as negative ions, irradiated them with an ultraviolet nanosecond optical parametric oscillator laser, and measured the difference in electron photodetachment efficiency between left and right circularly polarized light. The reconstructed circular dichroism ion spectra resembled those of their solution-phase counterparts, thereby allowing us to assign the DNA helical topology. The ability to measure circular dichroism directly on biomolecular ions expands the capabilities of mass spectrometry for structural analysis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaoming Zhang ◽  
Takunori Harada ◽  
Adriana Pietropaolo ◽  
Yuting Wang ◽  
Yue Wang ◽  
...  

Preferred-handed propeller conformation was induced by circularly polarized light irradiation to three amorphous molecules with trigonal symmetry, and the molecules with induced chirality efficiently exhibited blue circularly polarized luminescence. In...


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