Optical activity of intermolecular charge-transfer transitions

Abstract

Long wavelength optical activity is reported for a series of molecules containing both an electron donor (e.g. p-methoxyphenyl) and an electron acceptor (e.g. N-4-methoxycarbonylpyridinium) group. This optical activity is attributed to the intramolecular charge-transfer transition arising from interaction between the donor and acceptor groups. It is shown that the sign of the Cotton effects observed can be related to the absolute configuration of the systems by a simple chirality rule. The theoretical basis for this rule is discussed.