Optical Activity

Chiral molecules can rotate plane-polarized light either clockwise or counterclockwise

• Dextrorotatory
• Levorotatory

$[\alpha ]=\frac{{\alpha }_{\text{observed}}}{[x]\times l}$

• $[\alpha ]$ is the specific rotation of plane-polarized light in degrees
  • Instrinsic property of the compound
• ${\alpha }_{\text{observed}}$ is the observed rotation in degrees
• $[x]$ is the concentration of the compound in $\frac{\mathrm{g}}{\mathrm{mL}}$
  • $l$ is the path length of the light in $\mathrm{dm}$ (SI)