Chiral Molecules revisited by broadband microwave spectroscopy

Schnell, Melanie

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/55871 Copy

Description

Title

Chiral Molecules revisited by broadband microwave spectroscopy

Author(s)

Schnell, Melanie

Issue Date

2014-06-18

Keyword(s)

Plenary

Abstract

Chiral molecules have fascinated chemists for more than 150 years. While their physical properties are to a very good approximation identical, the two enantiomers of a chiral molecule can have completely different (bio)chemical activities. For example, the right-handed enantiomer of carvone smells of spearmint while the left-handed one smells of caraway. In addition, the active components of many drugs are of one specific handedness, such as in the case of ibuprofen. However, in nature as well as in pharmaceutical applications, chiral molecules often exist in mixtures with other chiral molecules. The analysis of these complex mixtures to identify the molecular components, to determine which enantiomers are present, and to measure the enantiomeric excesses (ee) remains a challenging task for analytical chemistry, despite its importance for modern drug development. We present here a new method of differentiating enantiomers of chiral molecules in the gas phase based on broadband rotational spectroscopy \footnote{D. Patterson, M. Schnell, J.M. Doyle, \textit{Nature} 497 (2013) 475-477}$^{,}$ \footnote{V.A. Shubert, D. Schmitz, D. Patterson, J.M. Doyle, M. Schnell, \textit{Angewandte Chemie International Edition} 53 (2014) 1152-1155}. The phase of the acquired signal bares the signature of the enantiomer, as it depends upon the combined quantity, $\mu_a \mu_b \mu_c$, which is of opposite sign between enantiomers. It thus also provides information on the absolute configuration of the particular enantiomer. Furthermore, the signal amplitude is proportional to the ee. A significant advantage of our technique is its inherent mixture compatibility due to the fingerprint-like character of rotational spectra. In this contribution, we will introduce the technique and present our latest results on chiral molecule spectroscopy and enantiomer differentiation.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/55871

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15278/isms.2014.WA03

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 by the authors. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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