ECD Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy

The study of chiral molecules has always occupied an important position in the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology. Circular Dichroism (CD), as a powerful spectroscopy technology, reveals the spatial structure and conformation of molecules by measuring the absorption difference of chiral molecules to left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light.Circular dichroism can be divided into electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD). In this issue, we will focus on ECD.

 

Principle of ECD

ECD mainly focuses on the optical activity of electron transitions in chiral molecules. When chiral molecules are irradiated by circularly polarized light, the electrons inside will transition, and this transition process will have different absorption for left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light. The measurement of ECD is based on the absorption difference in this electron transition process, thus providing information about the molecular electronic structure and energy level distribution.

 

Main Applications of ECD

The applications of ECD mainly focus on the determination of the absolute configuration of chiral compounds, the study of electronic structure and intramolecular electron transfer processes. For example, in drug development, ECD can be used to evaluate the purity and quality of chiral drugs and their interactions with biomacromolecules. In addition, ECD is widely used in the structural study of biomacromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids to reveal their secondary and tertiary conformation, conformational changes, and intermolecular interactions.

 

MtoZ Biolabs has established an electronic circular dichroism (ECD) analysis platform based on the Jasco circular dichroism spectrometer. Combined with the use of CDNN software, it can quickly and accurately analyze the secondary structure and higher-level structure information of chiral molecules such as proteins/peptides. Your inquiries are welcome.