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A brief review of the literature, and Chemical and Engineering News in particular, reveals that the determination and use of optical activity is of increasing importance in today's commercial and research laboratories. The classical technique is to measure [alpha]D using a manual or recording polarimeter to provide a single value, the specific rotation at 589 nm.
A spectropolarimeter can be used to determine optical activity through the UV-Visible spectrum (Optical Rotatory Dispersion [ORD]). At wavelengths far removed from electronic absorption bands, optical activity arises from circular birefringence, or the difference in the refractive index for left- and right-circularly polarized light; i.e., nL - nR does not equal zero for chiral materials. If the optical activity is measured through an absorption band, complex behavior is observed (a Cotton Effect curve).
At an absorption band, chiral materials exhibit circular dichroism (CD), or a difference in the absorption of left- and right-circularly polarized light; epsilon L minus epsilon R does not equal zero. If the spectropolarimeter is set for the measurement of CD spectra, one observes what appears to be a UV-Vis spectrum except that some absorption bands are positive while others may be negative.
Just as enantiomers have specific rotations that are equal and opposite at 589 nm (sodium D line), rotations are equal and opposite at all wavelengths, and CD measurements are equal and opposite at all wavelengths. Figure 1 shows the ORD curves for the enantiomeric carvones while Figure 2 contains the CD curves. The enantiomer of carvone that has the positive [alpha]D is obtained from caraway seeds and is known to have the S-configuration while the R-enantiomer is found in spearmint oil.
Figure 1. ORD of S-(+)- and R-(-)-carvones
Figure 2. CD of S-(+)- and R-(-)-carvones
While little can be done to correlate stereochemistry with [alpha]D values, chiroptical spectroscopy (ORD and/or CD) often can be used to assign absolute or relative configuration, or it can be useful in conformational analyses (1). Experiments are being developed for undergraduates that involve the synthesis of chiral materials, or the resolution of chiral materials, including organic compounds, inorganic complexes and organometallic compounds. Both classical and chiral HPLC resolutions are being tested. Once prepared, these chiral materials are studied by various techniques including NMR, Raman, IR, UV-VIS, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and chiroptical techniques. Molecular mechanics calculations are included (using PCModel which is available from Serena Software, Bloomington, IN.) when appropriate. Examples include some traditional experiments; i.e., the preparation and resolution of the tris-ethylenediaminecobalt complexes as well as some not now found in typical undergraduate laboratory manuals. For example, the resolution of trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane and subsequent conversion to the bis-Schiff base with para-dimethylamino-benzaldehyde. These Schiff bases have been studied by Nakanishi (2) using the exciton coupling method.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported partially under the award DUE-9351122 from the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Program.
Literature Cited
- Eliel, E.; Wilen, S. H. Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds; J. Wiley & Sons, Inc.: New York, 1994; Djerassi, C. Optical Rotary Dispersion; McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1960.; Crabbe, P. Optical Rotary Dispersion and Circular Dichroism in Organic Chemistry; Holden-Day: San Francisco, 1965.
- Gargiulo, D.; Cai, G.; Ikemoto, N.; Bozhkova, N.; Odingo, J. Berova, N. Nakanishi, K. Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. Engl. 1993, 32, 888-891.
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