Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) is a measure of the differential absorption of left versus right circularly polarized infrared radiation due to the vibrational transitions of chiral molecules. This is a new branch of vibrational spectroscopy, classified as vibrational optical activity (VOA), that emerged in the early seventies and offers potential for providing three dimensional structure of molecules in solution phase.
The specific aims of this project are to extend VCD measurements in to the far infrared and use these measurements for deducing molecular stereochemistry. A combination of VCD measurements in the mid infrared and far infrared regions will provide a more complete analysis and help identify the regions important for a given category of molecular systems. For biologically important molecules, the relations between far infrared VCD spectra and molecular stereochemistry will be explored. The analytical application of VCD spectroscopy in the life sciences can thus be established.
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