Research Projects

The proposal aims to establish an MI-VCD facility to study chirality transfer through noncovalent interactions, particularly through hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) in chiral molecules. The aim is to control and modulate stereochemical communication between chiral catalysts and reactants by studying noncovalent interactions responsible for chirality transfer. The project also investigates how the chirality of backbone residues influences the conformational preferences of short peptide chains. Achiral or D-conformation residues are also found in the backbone, which can be exploited in peptidomimetics and drug design. The study will use characteristic VCD spectra of α-helix, β-sheet, β, and γ-turns to understand the chirality-induced conformation of peptides. The structure and energetics of the conformers will be accurately rationalized using experimental results and ab-initio calculations. This project and VCD setup will also help the synthetic chemist determine the absolute configuration of newly synthesized chiral molecules and estimate the enantiomericc excess.