Diene chromophore distortion

The diene chirality rule (hereafter referred to as DR) constitutes a simple tool for correlating the sign of the lowest energy tt —> n transition (] A —> 1B in C2 symmetry) of the distorted diene to the chirality (left or right-handed) of the chromophore. The validity of this rule is based on the assumption that the CD of the distorted chromophore is determined by its intrinsic helicity alone and that external dissymmetric perturbations have only minor effects on the optical activity. 

This point of view finds its justification in the following observations. Compounds 8 (pyrocalciferol) and 9 (isopyrocalciferol), having opposite absolute configurations of the stereogenic centres near the dienes, show lA —> 1B Cotton effects at about 275 nm of the same sign and intensity. The reason for this is that only the twist of the chromophore determines the optical activity in fact the diene moieties are distorted in the same sense in 8 and 9, as found by X-ray diffraction16. 

Another, very notable, case where the two definitions are in conflict is that of het-eroannular cisoid dienes. As we have mentioned, this was just the class of molecules that stimulated the introduction of the AAR. Here, in order to have the correct results one should refer the chirality of the axial substituent to the individual double bonds (olefin-picture), as depicted in Figure 6 and in the upper parts of Figure 7(b) and (c). The case of heteroannular dienes is anyway peculiar, because in these compounds the chromophore is unusually distorted. This case is treated in the following section. 

---