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Updated: Feb 21, 2026

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions
Published on: February 10, 2022
X-ray circular dichroism signals: a unique probe of local molecular chirality
Yu Zhang1, Jérémy R Rouxel1, Jochen Autschbach2
1Department of Chemistry , University of California , Irvine , CA 92697 , USA . Email: yuz10@uci.edu ; Email: jrouxel@uci.edu ;
Abstract:
Core-resonant circular dichroism (CD) signals are induced by molecular chirality and vanish for achiral molecules and racemic mixtures. The highly localized nature of core excitations makes them ideal probes of local chirality within molecules. Simulations of the circular dichroism spectra of several molecular families illustrate how these signals vary with the electronic coupling to substitution groups, the distance between the X-ray chromophore and the chiral center, geometry, and chemical structure. Clear insight into the molecular structure is obtained through analysis of the X-ray CD spectra.
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