Nuclear spin-induced optical rotation of functional groups in hydrocarbons

Insights into localization, energy ordering, and substituent effect in excited states of azobenzenes from coupled cluster calculations of nuclear spin-induced circular dichroism

Nuclear spin-induced circular dichroism (NSCD) is a molecular effect of differential absorption of left- and right-circularly polarized light due to nuclear spins in the molecule. In this work, new tools for its calculation are presented. Specifically, analytic expressions for the computation of the K term of NSCD have been derived and implemented for the second-order coupled cluster singles and doubles (CC2) model. NSCD results obtained thereby for three derivatives of azobenzenes have been compared with results from time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The complementary information that could be obtained from NSCD measurements compared to NMR for these three species is discussed.

Characteristic nuclear spin-induced optical rotation in oxygen-containing organic molecules

Nuclear spin-induced optical rotation (NSOR) is a nuclear magneto-optic effect that manifests itself as a rotation of the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light. The effect is induced by ordered nuclear magnetic moments within a molecule. NSOR is sensitive to specific, localized interactions. Hence, the connection between the local chemical environment and the corresponding NSOR signal is crucial to understand. Despite the fact that contributions to better understand the connection have been made, the general systematics still remain unknown. In this paper, NSOR in oxygen compounds is investigated systematically to better understand the impact of oxygen atoms on the NSOR signal. NSOR signals are computed using density-functional theory methods for five different classes of oxygen compounds. The ability of NSOR to distinguish different molecules and individual nuclei in the molecules is studied and the information provided by NSOR is compared to conventional NMR spectroscopy. The results reveal that NSOR is capable of chemical distinction between nuclei and molecules, and by using NMR and NSOR together it is possible to distinguish nuclei near the oxygen atom.