Organic Chemical Applications of Magnetic Circular Dichroism*

Recent applications of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy (the Faraday effect) in organic chemistry are reviewed. Magnetic optical activity is a universal property of all matter and consequently can be applied to optically active as well as optically inactive molecules. It is emphasized, however, that natural and magnetic optical activity have separate physical origins and the information provided will necessarily be different. A brief theoretical background is given in order to explain the three types (A, B and C) of MCD curves which may be encountered in practice and the deductions that may be reached from their occurrence. Spectroscopic and analytical applications of MCD are illustrated for a wide variety of molecular systems such as metalloporphyrins, chlorins, corrins, aromatic hydrocarbons, carbonyl compounds, purine and pyrimidine bases and their nucleoside derivatives.