29. Preparing Single Enantiomers and the Mechanism of Optical Rotation

Freshman Organic Chemistry (CHEM 125)

Within a lecture on biological resolution, the synthesis of single enantiomers, and the naming and 3D visualization of omeprazole, Professor Laurence Barron of the University of Glasgow delivers a guest lecture on the subject of how chiral molecules rotate polarized light. Mixing wave functions by coordinated application of light's perpendicular electric and magnetic fields shifts electrons along a helix that can be right- or left-handed, but so many mixings are involved, and their magnitudes are so subtle, that predicting net optical rotation in practical cases is rarely simple.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Challenges in Isolating Enantiomers Despite Optical Activity
06:09 - Chapter 2. Barron: A Sketch of Lord Kelvin and Chirality
12:35 - Chapter 3. Natural and Magnetic Optical Rotation
20:49 - Chapter 4. Understanding Optical Activity via the Carbonyl Chromophore
37:22 - Chapter 5. Who Cares? Chiral Switches in Life and Drugs

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.