A spectroscopic method which measures the difference in
absorbance
of left- and right-handed circularly polarised light by a material, as a
function of the
wavelength. Most biological molecules, including
proteins and
nucleic acids, are
chiral and show circular
dichroism in
their
ultraviolet absorption bands, which may be used as an indication
of
secondary structure. Metal centres that are bound to such
molecules, even if they have no inherent
chirality, usually exhibit
CD
in absorption bands associated with
ligand-based or ligand-metal
charge-transfer transitions.
CD is frequently used in combination with
absorption and
MCD studies to assign electronic transitions.
Source:
PAC, 1997, 69, 1251
(Glossary of terms used in bioinorganic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1997))
on page 1265
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
