Vibrational Optical Activity - by Laurence A Nafie Hardcover

Book Synopsis

This unique book stands as the only comprehensive introduction to vibrational optical activity (VOA) and is the first single book that serves as a complete reference for this relatively new, but increasingly important area of molecular spectroscopy.

Key features:

• A single-source reference on this topic that introduces, describes the background and foundation of this area of spectroscopy.
• Serves as a guide on how to use it to carry out applications with relevant problem solving.
• Depth and breadth of the subject is presented in a logical, complete and progressive fashion.

Although intended as an introductory text, this book provides in depth coverage of this topic relevant to both students and professionals by taking the reader from basic theory through to practical and instrumental approaches.

From the Back Cover

Vibrational optical activity (VOA) is comprised of two closely related areas of molecular spectroscopy, infrared vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) and vibrational Raman optical activity (ROA). Both of these areas were discovered experimentally in the early 1970s and have since matured into a new field of science at the interface of vibrational spectroscopy and molecular chirality. Vibrational optical activity has come of age with the availability of commercial instruments and computational programs which now enable non-specialists to apply both infrared and Raman optical activity to a wide range of chemical and biomolecular problems.

This book will take the reader from the basic theory through the practical and instrumental approaches, providing a unified, comprehensive description to the field of VOA that gives both introductory and in-depth coverage to VCD and ROA. Applications include the analysis of all classes of chiral molecules, including organic and inorganic molecules, metal complexes, pharmaceutical and natural product molecules, and the full range of biological molecules such as amino acids, peptides, sugars, proteins, protein fibrils, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, viruses and bacteria.

This comprehensive volume will serve both as an introduction and complete reference for this relatively new, but increasingly important, area of molecular spectroscopy. Written in a thorough and progressive style, it will appeal to advanced undergraduates, graduates and research groups in academia as well as researchers and technicians in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Review Quotes

"In any case, once practicing something like the VOA, one should read the manual. And I can hardly imagine a better one than the book of Laurence Nafie." (Chirality, 2012)

About the Author

Laurence Nafie is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University where, as a faculty member since 1975, he has been a leading world authority on VOA. He confirmed experimentally the first observation of infrared VCD, was the first to propose and measure Fourier transform VCD, and is the discoverer of several of the forms of ROA. He has also contributed to the theoretical foundations of both VCD and ROA. For nearly four decades, he has carried out research in the field of VOA and in 1996 co-founded the company BioTools for the commercialization of advanced spectroscopic instrumentation, including VCD and ROA spectrometers and services. He was also the founding Editor of the journal Biospectroscopy that subsequently merged with Biopolymers, and he is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy.