The phenomena of Circular Dichroism (CD) and Optical Rotatory Dispersion (ORD) are studied by chemists in order to gain special insight into the specific arrangement of atoms within molecules that possess the property of chirality. A molecule is said to be chiral when it is not superimposable on its mirror image. A crucial instrument used to study the phenomena is the CD/ORD spectropolarimeter. Access to the instrument is essential to those chemists carrying out modern research involving chiral molecules. This award from the Chemistry Shared Instrumentation Program will help the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri at St. Louis to acquire a CD/ORD spectropolarimeter. The areas of chemical research that will be enhanced by the acquisition include the following: 1) Structure and spectroscopy of high-symmetry aqueous lanthanide complexes 2) Circular dichroism of organo-deuterium compounds 3) Synthesis and structure of chiral thioaryl allenes 4) Detecting conformational changes during iron removal from transferrin 5) Orientation of substrates and active sites in artificial enzymes.
