Chiroptical Instruments

Chiroptical instruments are specialized tools used to study chiral substances—molecules that have a non-superimposable mirror image, like left and right hands. These instruments, such as polarimeters and circular dichroism spectrometers, measure how these molecules interact with polarized light. By analyzing how the light's polarization changes when passing through or reflecting from a sample, scientists can determine the molecule’s structure, concentration, and optical activity. Chiroptical measurements are essential in fields like pharmaceuticals, chemistry, and material science for characterizing chiral compounds and ensuring proper stereochemical configurations.