The circular dichroism and absolute configuration of (+)-trans-stilbene oxide

Abstract

The circular dichroism of (+)-trans-stilbene oxide has been shown to derive principally from couplings by Coulombic interaction between the excitation moments of the two alkyl–phenyl chromophores of the molecule. From the analysis it is concluded that both of the asymmetric carbon atoms of (+)-trans-stilbene oxide have the R-configuration, in agreement with the results of a chemical correlation. It is found that the inclusion of interactions between electronic configurations with different energies do not affect qualitatively the results obtained from degenerate exciton theory, with use of the dipole approximation.