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Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Vibrational circular dichroism studies of exceptionally strong chirality inducers in liquid crystals
Mark A J Koenis1, Valentin P Nicu, Lucas Visscher
1Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. w.j.buma@uva.com.
Abstract:
7,7'-Disubstituted 2,2'-methylenedioxy-1,1'-binaphthyls are highly efficient chirality inducers in nematic liquid crystals. The absolute configuration of these compounds is, however, hard to determine as they only crystallize as racemic mixtures. In this work a Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) study is reported that provides an unambiguous determination of the absolute configuration of these compounds. An in-depth General Coupled Oscillator (GCO) analysis of the source of the VCD signal reveals that the unusual structure of these binaphthyl compounds inherently leads to strong and robust VCD bands. Combined with linear transit calculations, our VCD studies allow for the determination of key structural parameters.
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