Emergence and Applications of Chiroptical Spectroscopy

Electronic circular dichroism (ECD), optical rotatory dispersion (ORD), vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) and vibrational Raman optical activity (VROA) are four components of chiroptical spectrocopy. Chiroptical spectroscopy has experienced a renaissance in the last decade with regard to molecular structure determination. Aided by quantum chemical programs that facilitated the prediction of chiroptical properties, experimental spectroscopists can now confidently translate their experimental measurements into details on molecular structure. Given the status only a few years ago, when experimental data remained in isolation without tools to interpret them, the current status is remarkable. In this talk I will introduce the abovementioned methods and describe their applications.