Raman optical activity study of deuterated sugars: deuterium labelling as a tool for structural analysis

Structural analyses using Raman optical activity (ROA) spectroscopy conventionally rely on vibrational signals in the fingerprint region ranging from 100 to 1800 cm^-1. Use of deuterium labelling to observe ROA signals in the C-D stretching region provides additional information about a local structure of large molecular systems. So far, the potential of C-D stretching ROA signals for structural analysis has rarely been explored. In the present work, we synthesized model deuterated glucose monosaccharides and studied their ROA properties by employing molecular dynamics and density functional theory to interpret the spectra. A good agreement between the simulated and experimental spectra is achieved when the proper conformer ratios are considered. This shows the usefulness of ROA spectroscopy assisted by deuterium labelling for stereochemical and conformational analysis.