Uploaded November 2019 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
CD stands for circular dichroism and is based on circularly polarised light.🌊 Circularly polarised light is basically chiral light, i.e. it can be left-handed or right-handed. When this light now hits a chiral molecule or a biological structure, it will be absorbed differently depending on the chirality of the #molecule.
In a CD spectrometer the sample of interest is radiated at a selected wavelength with the same amount of left and right circularly polarised light. Depending on the chirality of the sample, one of the polarisations will be absorbed better than the other. This procedure is done over a range of different wavelengths and the difference of absorbance at each wavelength is displayed in the CD spectrum.
This technique is mainly used to investigate biological samples since these are very often right- or left-handed. In the example in the video the secondary structure of a protein is determined since e.g. alpha helices and beta sheets differ greatly from each other. Other applications of this method also include the investigation of #DNA or even small molecules.😀
Have a nice Thursday!
#NCCR #NCCRmse #circular #dichroism #protein
CD stands for circular dichroism and is based on circularly polarised light.🌊 Circularly polarised light is basically chiral light, i.e. it can be left-handed or right-handed. When this light now hits a chiral molecule or a biological structure, it will be absorbed differently depending on the chirality of the #molecule.
In a CD spectrometer the sample of interest is radiated at a selected wavelength with the same amount of left and right circularly polarised light. Depending on the chirality of the sample, one of the polarisations will be absorbed better than the other. This procedure is done over a range of different wavelengths and the difference of absorbance at each wavelength is displayed in the CD spectrum.
This technique is mainly used to investigate biological samples since these are very often right- or left-handed. In the example in the video the secondary structure of a protein is determined since e.g. alpha helices and beta sheets differ greatly from each other. Other applications of this method also include the investigation of #DNA or even small molecules.😀
Have a nice Thursday!
#NCCR #NCCRmse #circular #dichroism #protein
