Chiroptical Properties of Molecular Systems

Chiroptical properties arise from the interaction of chiral molecules with circularly polarised light, leading to phenomena such as optical rotation, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD). These effects stem from the intrinsic asymmetry of molecular structures, which gives rise to differential absorption or refraction of left‐ and right‐handed polarisation. At the molecular level, chiroptical responses are quantified by rotatory strengths and dissymmetry factors, which encode the electric and magnetic transition dipole moments associated with electronic or vibrational excitations. Advances in spectroscopy, quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics have deepened our understanding of how conformational flexibility, solvent interactions and electronic structure dictate chiroptical signals. This knowledge underpins the determination of absolute configuration, the design of functional materials—such as switchable probes, catalysts and optoelectronic devices—and the elucidation of biomolecular structure and dynamics.

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Chiroptical Properties of Molecular Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in chiroptical properties of molecular systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Chirality: A geometric property of a structure that is not superimposable on its mirror image.

Optical rotation: Rotation of the plane of polarisation of linearly polarised light as it passes through a chiral medium.

Electronic circular dichroism (ECD): Differential absorption of left- and right-circularly polarised light in the ultraviolet-visible region due to electronic transitions.

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD): Differential absorption of circularly polarised infrared light associated with molecular vibrational transitions.

Rotatory strength: A measure of the intensity of a chiroptical transition, arising from the dot product of electric and magnetic transition dipole moments.

Dissymmetry factor (g-factor): Dimensionless ratio of differential absorption to overall absorption, quantifying the magnitude of circular dichroism.

References

1. Acid/Base-Triggered Photophysical and Chiroptical Switching in a Series of Helicenoid Compounds. Molecules (2023).
2. Conformational and Chiroptical Properties of Salicylamide-Based Peptidomimetics. Symmetry (2024).
3. Theoretical–Computational Modeling of CD Spectra of Aqueous Monosaccharides by Means of Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Perturbed Matrix Method. Molecules (2023).