Polarizing light plane

In the first case (-S =tt/2) polarizer and axis of deformation are in a perpendicular position. The conoscopic picture is schematically shown in Fig. 7 ( 3 =tt/2). The dark cross is typical for monaxial crystals between crossed polarizers if the optical axis is parallel to the incident light. This also holds for biaxial crystals, if the plane of the polarized light (plane of oscillating electric field vector) is perpendicular to the plane formed by the two optical axis of a biaxial crystal. 

A FIGURE 20.4 Rotation of Plane-Polarized Light Plane-polarized light rotates as it passes through a sample containing only one of two optical isomers. 

A molecule is chiral if it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image (or if it does not possess an alternating axis of symmetry) and would exhibit optical activity, i.e. lead to the rotation of the plane of polarization of polarized light. Lactic acid, which has the structure (2 mirror images) shown exhibits molecular chirality. In this the central carbon atom is said to be chiral but strictly it is the environment which is chiral. 

Equation (B 1,9.11) is valid only for plane polarized light. For unpolarized incident light, the beam can be resolved into two polarized components at right angles to each other. The scattered intensity can thus be expressed as (figure Bl.9.2)... 

Figure C2.15.2. Right circularly polarized light. As tire wave propagates tire resultant E sweeps out a circle in tire x-y plane.

The Cahn-Ingold-Prelog (CIP) rules stand as the official way to specify chirahty of molecular structures [35, 36] (see also Section 2.8), but can we measure the chirality of a chiral molecule. Can one say that one structure is more chiral than another. These questions are associated in a chemist s mind with some of the experimentally observed properties of chiral compounds. For example, the racemic mixture of one pail of specific enantiomers may be more clearly separated in a given chiral chromatographic system than the racemic mixture of another compound. Or, the difference in pharmacological properties for a particular pair of enantiomers may be greater than for another pair. Or, one chiral compound may rotate the plane of polarized light more than another. Several theoretical quantitative measures of chirality have been developed and have been reviewed elsewhere [37-40]. 

The experimental facts that led van t Hoff and Le Bel to propose that molecules having the same constitution could differ m the arrangement of their atoms m space concerned the physical property of optical activity Optical activity is the ability of a chiral sub stance to rotate the plane of plane polarized light and is measured using an instrument called a polarimeter (Figure 7 5)... 

Occasionally an optically inactive sample of tartaric acid was obtained Pasteur noticed that the sodium ammonium salt of optically inactive tartaric acid was a mixture of two mirror image crystal forms With microscope and tweezers Pasteur carefully sep arated the two He found that one kind of crystal (m aqueous solution) was dextrorota tory whereas the mirror image crystals rotated the plane of polarized light an equal amount but were levorotatory... 

Section 7 4 Optical activity, or the degree to which a substance rotates the plane of polarized light is a physical property used to characterize chiral sub stances Enantiomers have equal and opposite optical rotations To be optically active a substance must be chiral and one enantiomer must be present m excess of the other A racemic mixture is optically inactive and contains equal quantities of enantiomers... 

Polarized light (Section 7 4) Light in which the electnc field vectors vibrate in a single plane Polanzed light is used in measuring optical activity... 

Enantiomers. Two nonsuperimposable structures that are mirror images of each other are known as enantiomers. Enantiomers are related to each other in the same way that a right hand is related to a left hand. Except for the direction in which they rotate the plane of polarized light, enantiomers are identical in all physical properties. Enantiomers have identical chemical properties except in their reactivity toward optically active reagents. 

A chiral molecule is one which exists in two forms, known as enantiomers. Each of the enantiomers is optically active, which means that they can rotate the plane of plane-polarized light. The enantiomer that rotates the plane to the right (clockwise) has been called the d (or dextro) form and the one that rotates it to the left (anticlockwise) the I (or laevo) form. Nowadays, it is more usual to refer to the d and I forms as the ( + ) and (—) forms, respectively. 

Very often, a sample of a chiral molecule exists as an equimolar mixture of (+) and (—) enantiomers. Such a mixture will not rotate the plane of plane-polarized light and is called a... 

The all trans" stmcture in Figure 4.9(a) is not chiral as it has an inversion centre i. This is called a meso stmcture. Although each CFIFCFI3 group rotates the plane of plane-polarized light in one direction, the other group rotates it an equal amount in the opposite direction. The result is that there is no rotation of the plane of polarization and, as the presence of an inversion centre tells us, the molecule is achiral. 

Fig. 7. Fluorescence polarization (FP). (a) The formation of the large FITC—protein A—IgG complex which leads to a net increase in plane polarized light transmitted from the solution. Molecular weights of the protein A-FITC, IgG, and complex are ca 43,000, 150,000, and 343,000, respectively, (b) Detection of IgG by fluorescence polarization immunoassay using A, a laboratory fluorimeter where (O) represents AP = change in polarization, and B, a portable detection unit where (D) is —fiV = change in voltage (27). The field detector proved to be more sensitive than the fluorimeter.

Iodine vapor is characterized by the familiar violet color and by its unusually high specific gravity, approximately nine times that of air. The vapor is made up of diatomic molecules at low temperatures at moderately elevated temperatures, dissociation becomes appreciable. The concentration of monoatomic molecules, for example, is 1.4% at 600°C and 101.3 kPa (1 atm) total pressure. Iodine is fluorescent at low pressures and rotates the plane of polarized light when placed in a magnetic field. It is also thermoluminescent, emitting visible light when heated at 500°C or higher. 

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