Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 4: Electron Dynamics in Chiral Systems SYCS 1 (with MO)

A 4.3: Invited Talk

Monday, March 17, 2014, 11:30–12:00, Audimax

Enantiomer Identification of Chiral Molecules in Mixtures using Microwave Three-Wave Mixing — •Melanie Schnell — Max-Planck-Institut für Struktur und Dynamik der Materie, Hamburg, Germany

Chiral molecules are fascinating chemists for more than 150 years. The two enantiomers of a chiral molecule can have completely different biological effects. For example, the right-handed enantiomer of carvone smells like spearmint while the left-handed one smells like caraway. In nature, chiral molecules often exist in mixtures with other chiral molecules. Their analysis aiming at identifying the molecular components, determining which enantiomers are present, and measuring the enantiomeric excesses (ee) is still one of the challenging tasks of analytical chemistry, despite its importance for modern drug development.

We present here a new method of differentiating enantiomeric pairs of chiral molecules in the gas phase [1,2] based on broadband rotational spectroscopy. The phase of the acquired signal bares the signature of the enantiomer, as it depends upon the combined quantity of their dipole-moment components, which is of opposite sign for the two enantiomers. The signal amplitude is proportional to the ee. A significant advantage of our technique is its inherent mixture compatibility, and we also present absolute configuration determination.

[1] D. Patterson, M. Schnell, J.M. Doyle, Nature 497 (2013) 475-477. [2] V.A. Shubert, D. Schmitz, D. Patterson, J.M. Doyle, M. Schnell, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2013) DOI: 10.1002/anie.201306271