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Published on: August 18, 2017
Prospects for circular dichroism detection of nonracemic extraterrestrial organic molecules
J W Canary1, A E Holmes, J Liu
1New York University, NY 10003, USA. james.canary@nyu.edu
Abstract:
The use of circular dichroism is examined as a probe for the detection of nonracemic analytes on spacecraft explorations such as a planned mission to Titan. Advances in both instrument design and chemistry will be required to make such a method practicable. The focus of this paper is on chemical agents able to amplify the circular dichroism signal, which would simplify instrument problems and increase sensitivity. A classic phenomenon known as the Pfeiffer effect provides a conceptual strategy to achieve the necessary aims for chirality detection. Recent examples of Pfeiffer-related phenomena are discussed.
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