Stereochemistry of highly flexible chiral compounds & chiroptical spectroscopy
Circular dichroism (CD) and optical rotation (OR) at the sodium D line are the two most common experimental data that characterize an optically active compound.
The conformational and configurational studies relies on a correlation between the main CD parameter - the sign of the Cotton effect at a given wavelength and the molecular structure. Absolute configuration of a chiral molecule can be deduced directly from its OR and/or CD spectrum when experimental investigations are supported by advanced theoretical calculations.
Experimental/theoretical approach, developed in our team, emerges now as a general and convenient method for the determination of absolute stereochemistry even of highly flexible molecules.
