Circular Dichroism and Related Spectroscopic Techniques

Abstract

Circular dichroism (CD) is an absorption spectroscopy technique that is uniquely sensitive to the helical nature of transitions. It can therefore be used to provide qualitative and quantitative information about any chiral molecule that has an absorption spectrum in the wavelength region of interest. Applications of ultraviolet circular dichroism spectroscopy to study protein secondary structure represent the current predominant applications. Vibrational circular dichroism is seeing increasing application, particularly in the study of small molecules. Related techniques that can be used to extract structural information on solutions of molecules include linear dichroism and infra-red absorbance spectroscopies. Show more